New Delhi, March 3: Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and Rashtriya Janata Dal supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav on Wednesday threatened that there would be a “yudh (war)” if the government went ahead with the Women’s Reservation Bill.
Earlier, parliamentary affairs minister Pawan Kumar Bansal had indicated the government proposed to take up the bill providing 33 per cent reservations for women in Parliament and the state Assemblies for consideration in the Rajya Sabha on March 8, which is Interna-tional Women’s Day.
The Samajwadi Party has 12 members in the Rajya Sabha while the RJD’s strength is just four. The Janata Dal(United), a key ally of the BJP. which has seven members, has reservations about the bill in its present form. In case it joins the SP and RJD on this issue, the bloc of three OBC parties will have a strength of 23 in the House. In addition, the Bahujan Samaj Party has 12 members, while the AIADMK and DMK, known for backward caste politics, has seven and four members respectively.
Mr Bansal told reporters on Wednesday that the government planned to “bring the bill in the Rajya Sabha on March 8 for consideration and passing.” The business advisory committee of the Rajya Sabha will meet on Thursday to take a final decision on the date the bill would be taken up by the House.
Asked if the government proposed to hold consultations with parties like the RJD and SP which have reservations about the bill in its present form, Mr Bansal said: “We have not yet spoken to them.”
Mr Bansal’s announcement came as the BJP declared that while it was ready to support the measure, it was for the government to bring the bill before Parliament.
Since this will be a bill amending the Constitution, a two-thirds majority is required for passage. The Rajya Sabha, as of Wednesday, has a strength of 233 members; therefore the support of at least 156 members is required. The Congress (71 members), BJP (45) and Left parties (21 members — CPI-M 15, CPI five and Forward Bloc one) have pledged support: therefore there is a solid core of 137 members in support of the bill, and the government only needs the backing of 19 more members, possibly from the smaller parties and Independents, to ensure passage.
Their lack of numbers does not bother the two Yadav chieftains. “Yuddh hoga (There will be war),” Mr Lalu Yadav vowed while interjecting in the discussion in the Lok Sabha on the motion of thanks to the President for her address. His warning came as SP chief Mulayam Yadav said his party would oppose the Women’s Reservation Bill “tooth and nail” and spoke about an “uproar” looming in Parliament.
“The most you can do is to throw us out (of the House) and cancel our membership”, Mr Yadav said, giving ample hints that those opposed to the measure would not take lying down attempts to pass it without amendments. The SP and the RJD oppose the bill in its current form and want a “quota within quota” for women from backward classes.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi, meanwhile, plans to host a dinner for MPs in the next few days, but sources said it was not yet clear if it would be only for Congress members or for all constituent parties of the UPA.
The Union Cabinet has already cleared the bill, soon after a parliamentary standing committee “strongly” recommended that the bill, hanging fire for over a decade, be passed quickly in its present form. President Pratibha Patil, in her address to the joint sitting recently, had also asked MPs to give special attention to the measure.
BJP leader M. Venkaiah Naidu said on Wednesday: “If the government has the political will, it will bring the bill (before Parliament) ... The BJP is ready to support it in its present form. It is for the government to bring about a consensus among political parties. If not, they should bring the bill in its present form.”
In the Rajya Sabha, the NCP has six members, besides Independent and Others (7), Nominated (6), Shiv Sena and Biju Janata Dal four each, Shiromani Akali Dal (3), while the Trinamul Congress, Asom Gana Parishad, Telugu Desam Party, National Conference and Janata Dal(S) have two members each.
The one-member parties are: All India Forward Bloc, Bodoland People’s Front, Lok Janashakti Party, Muslim League, Mizo National Front, Nagaland People’s Front, Pattali Makkal Katchi, Rashtriya Lok Dal, Revolutionary Socialist Party, Swatantra Bharat Paksha and Sikkim Democratic Front
Age Correspondent