Mamata abstains from vote after lunch with the Yadavs,UPA plate full

The government was little prepared for this,considering that just a day earlier,Mamata along with her party MPs had broken out into We shall overcome… in the Lok Sabha to express her strong support for the Bill.

Trinamool sources said Mamatas sudden turnaround was driven by fears centred around the Muslim vote bank as she faces crucial Assembly elections next year in West Bengal. The Muslim population in the state is around 25 per cent and backing of the community is a key factor. Party insiders said that the Trinamool also did not want to be seen voting along with arch rival Left.

Justifying her MPs not participating in the voting in the Rajya Sabha,Mamata claimed that she did not get time to mobilise them.

During their meeting with the Trinamool supremo,Lalu and Mulayam are learnt to have impressed upon her that womens reservation would be against Muslims. Muslim organisations also told her that the Bill would further reduce numbers of the already under-represented Muslim community in Parliament and state legislatures.

Soon after the meetings,it was a furious Railway Minister who turned up in Parliament. It is very condemnable the way the Bill has been introduced, she said. We were kept in the dark. The Prime Minister gave an understanding yesterday that there would be an all-party meeting and the Bill would not be taken up the way it was done.

Mamatas anger also drew from the fact that she felt the government had held consultations with the Left,but not allies. Trinamool leaders said she was watching the Rajya Sabha proceedings on TV and when marshals were called to evict the suspended MPs,she shouted: This is like the CPM in West Bengal. They are bulldozing democracy. She ordered her members to call party MPs in the Rajya Sabha and said they should not be part of the voting.

Now the UPA is keeping its fingers crossed about what Mamata would do when the Bill comes up in the Lok Sabha,where she has 20 MPs. Trinamool leaders assured that their leader would not destabilise the government but that it was her compulsion to address the Muslim constituency. Muslim desertion of the CPM was key to her success in West Bengal,they pointed out.

House sidelights

PM among those voting with slips

When it came to voting,several members,including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh,had to be given slips as the electronic machine developed glitches and could not function properly. Sharad Joshi,Shetkari Sagathan leader from Maharashtra,was the only member who voted against the Bill. He said that while he agreed with the intent of the Bill,he disagreed with the manner and methodology of its proposed implementation. His was the only No amongst the chorus of Ayes for the Bill.

Hesitant aye from male members

It was not an unqualified aye from the male members of the political parties supporting the Womens Reservation Bill the Congress,BJP,and Left. Although the Bill was passed by the Rajya Sabha,most of the male members,said to have raised apprehensions against it,are deeply concerned about the rotation system a key component in the Bill. BJPs Yogi Adityanath,who spoke out against the bill on Tuesday,had a few more reasons for his opposition. I am only asking whether this is the right time to take up the Womens Bill. Issues like Naxalism,price rise,and terror are afflicting the country,so how can we prioritise the Womens Bill over all these, said the Gorakhpur MP. The biggest problem we face is that we risk losing the seat that we have nursed through out, said a Congress MP. This view is shared by a large number of male MPs belonging to all parties. While Congress president Sonia Gandhi took personal interest in the Bill,BJP Parliamentary Party meeting chairman L K Advani and BJP president Nitin Gadkari spoke about the BJPs long-standing commitment to the Bill at the BJP Parliamentary Party meeting on Tuesday.

Too close for V-Ps comfort

Given his experience yesterday,the Chairperson had got increasingly wary of MPs opposed to the Womens Bill drawing up really close to him to make a point (on Monday,an MP from UP had even toyed dangerously with a paper cutter on his desk). Today,a watchful V-P ticked off  someone who moved far too close for comfort,with go back to your seat,only to be told by another staffer that it was not an MP,but a faithful colleague of his trying to shield the Presiding Officer.

BJP angry with adjournments

If the Congress MPs in the House looked like they did not know if their government had a plan B,till just after 2 pm,minutes before the Bill was put to vote,deep unease and anger at the repeated adjournments prevailed at one point in the BJP too,especially just before the marshals were evicting the suspended MPs. Leader of the Opposition Arun Jaitley and S S Ahluwalia were seen pacifying a visibly agitated Vinay Katiyar,who had rushed down,and others that we are not with such behavior,we are for the Bill. Vinay Katiyar,it is useful to recall,was a very open adversary of the Bill without a quota within quota for backwards.

Moilys slip of the tongue

After 27 speakers had spoken on the Bill and when Law Minister Veerappa Moily got up to reply to the debate,he created a good deal of confusion by referring to the need for another Bill that provides for quota. Coming as it did just after two Muslim MPs supporting the UPA had made their apprehensions clear,BJPs SS Ahluwalia was up on his feet to ask for a clarification. Moily immediately took his words back and said it was a slip of the tongue.

Debate must,Jaitley tells V-P,PM

Sticking to the ground that debate was a must for this historic legislation,Arun Jaitley walked up to Hamid Ansari and reminded him that a legislation like this could not be passed without debate. Getting no reply from the Chair,he walked up to the PM and reminded him how the 42nd Constitutional Amendment was passed with the entire Opposition in jail during the Emergency. Unfazed with no response from Treasury benches,Jaitley returned to his chair and started speaking. The dissenting MPs tried to disrupt his speech,but gave up. It was only after this that Congress MP Jayanti Natarajan spoke followed by CPMs Brinda Karat and then a full fledged debate ensued.

ENS