ELECTION 99
US EDITION
COLUMNISTS
DIARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ELECTIONS
ARCHIVES

Search Rediff

Mulayam and co disrupt LS over Women's Bill

Mulayam Singh Yadav and his Samajwadi Party colleagues delayed the beginning of the question hour in the Lok Sabha for about 45 minutes as they demanded a "broad consensus" on the quota for Other Backward Classes in the Women's Reservation Bill.

Right at the start of the House proceedings this morning, they were on their feet demanding that the government should refrain from introducing the bill that seeks to reserve one-third of the seats in Parliament and state legislatures for women.

The SP along with the Rashtriya Janata Dal was demanding a quota for the OBCs within the reservation proposed for women in higher elected bodies. Such reservation has already been effected in panchayats and zilla parishads.

Deputy Speaker P M Sayeed pointed out to the agitated SP members that the Women's Reservation Bill was not slated for introduction today and as such there was no urgency for raising the issue during the Question Hour. He advised them to bring it up during the Zero hour.

But Mulayam Singh Yadav told the Chair that no government could think of introducing "such an important bill" without general consensus from all political parties. He wanted the government to give an undertaking about a quota within a quota for OBCs.

The SP leader ignored the deputy speaker's repeated pleas to send back the agitated party members back to their seats so that the Chair could call the Question Hour. The members of the ruling parties and the Congress resented the SP members' obstruction of the Question Hour. Some exchanges were seen between the agitating members and those from the other groups. However, some RJD members later lent support to the SP members.

After 45 minutes of persuasion and waiting, the deputy speaker pushed through the Question Hour. The Samajwadi members countered this by trying to drown the supplementaries and answers by resorting to slogan shouting and sitting in the well of the House. They continued their sit-in even after the Question Hour was over and the House moved into the Zero Hour.

UNI

Tell us what you think of this report