Quota issue turns ugly as SP members tear Bill in Lok Sabha

The issue of the Bill on quota in government job promotion for SCs/STs took an ugly turn today after Samajwadi Party (SP) members of Parliament tore copies of the Bill and tried to stall its tabling in the Lok Sabha, despite Congress President Sonia Gandhi’s intervention.

The government had managed to get the 117th constitutional amendment Bill passed in the Rajya Sabha last week, despite stiff opposition from the SP.

Following the scuffling between Congress and SP members today, the Lok Sabha was adjourned for the day. Later, a determined Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kamal Nath said, “The quota in promotion Bill will be taken up in the Lok Sabha tomorrow.”

As minister V Narayanasamy was in the process of moving the Bill, SP member Yashvir Singh snatched it from the shocked minister and passed it to another SP member, Neeraj Shekhar, who tore it apart.

Meanwhile, Sonia Gandhi who occupies a front row seat, attempted to retrieve the Bill; even as a minor scuffle broke out between Congress and SP members. Speaker Meira Kumar was so shocked by the incident that she abruptly adjourned the House for the day.

SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav, also a Lok Sabha MP, was far from apologetic and instead “condemned” the Congress MPs for the “attack on our MPs”.

The SP is opposed to the Bill because it views it as unfair to the other backward classes and Muslims, both of which constitute a major chunk of the party’s vote bank. The SP has been demanding a quota in government jobs for Muslims on the same lines as that for the SCs/STs.

The SP, however, is not linking its opposition to the quota Bill to the withdrawal of support to the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government. “There is time for that; we condemn what happened today,” said Yadav.

The SP, according to sources, has started resorting to desperate measures like tearing of the Bill, realising the fact that unlike in the Rajya Sabha, where the UPA did not have the adequate numbers, in the Lok Sabha it does. So, the Bill has an assured passage in the Lower House.

The SP, in all likelihood, will vote against the Bill, but as the Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party has already declared its public support, the UPA is not worried. The proceedings in the Lok Sabha had been disrupted since the morning by SP members who trooped into the well of the House raising slogans against the Bill, leading to frequent adjournments. The party has been trying to ensure that the Lower House does not pass it in this session, which ends tomorrow.

The Bill has found the support of all political parties, barring the SP and the Shiv Sena.

The Congress-led UPA, which was initially responding to pressure from the Bahujan Samajwadi Party (BSP) chief Mayawati after the latter publicly accused the government of stalling the Bill, is now resolute in getting the Bill cleared by the Parliament.

The usually unflappable Kamal Nath was livid, as he said outside the House, “This is a sad day for Parliamentary democracy; in my 22 years in the Lok Sabha, I haven’t seen this”.

Significantly, while the SP had walked out during the crucial FDI vote in Parliament, the BSP had not – thus bailing out the government.