Voting on women`s bill deferred, unruly scenes in RS

New Delhi, Mar 8 (PTI) In an anti-climax, voting on the
women's reservation bill in the Rajya Sabha, Upper House of
the Indian Parliament, was deferred Monday with Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh likely to call an all-party meeting on the
issue tomorrow after Samajwadi Party (SP) and Rashtriya Janata
Dal (RJD) threatened to withdraw support to the United
Progressive Alliance (UPA) government.
On a day of dramatic developments, the Constitution
amendment bill for reserving one-third of seats in Lok Sabha
(Lower House of Parliament) and Assemblies was tabled in the
Rajya Sabha (Upper House) amidst unruly scenes with the
opponents of the measure belonging to SP, RJD and an expelled
member of the Janata Dal-United (JD-U) tearing the copies of
the measure and virtually trying to attack Chairman Hamid
Ansari.
After five adjournments, the House was adjourned for the
day at 1800 hours without the bill being taken up despite the
government having the numbers to carry the legislation
through.
But the staunch opponents--SP and RJD which has 25 MPs in
the Lok Sabha--sent ominous signals to the government that has
important money bills and Budgets to adopt in the Lower House
that its majority may be made wafer-thin, just above the
half-way mark of 272, if the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), which
too is opposed to the legislation, also withdraws support.
This was followed by hectic consultations between the
Indian Prime Minister and his senior Cabinet colleagues and
with leaders of the supporters of the bill--Bahratiya Janata
Party (BJP) and Left parties--and with the opponents--Mulayam
Singh Yadav and Lalu Prasad together and with BSP's Satish
Chandra Mishra separately.
The leaders opposing the bill made it clear to the Prime
Minister that their parties would vote against it in its
present form without quota for women belonging to Other
Backward Castes (OBCs) and Muslims and that there was no no
change. (More) PTI