It is referred to as the ‘House of Elders’ but the blows exchanged on Wednesday over the Bill to ensure quotas for scheduled castes and tribes in promotions in government jobs marked a new low in the Rajya Sabha. However, the government managed to introduce the legislation to amend the Constitution.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) did not support the introduction and alleged this was a ploy by the ruling Congress party to divert attention from the coal scam. Meanwhile, the government plans to try and get passage of the Bill in the House on Thursday.
While the Bahujan Samaj Party, with its Dalit vote bank, has been clamouring for the enactment, the Samajwadi Party, with its Other Backward Classes vote bank, has been vehemently opposing it. Both support the ruling UPA coalition, from outside; their members physically grappled with each other on Wednesday.
BSP supremo Mayawati later accused both the UPA and the BJP of “political opportunism”, since the Bill could not be passed on Wednesday. Attacking the BJP for refusing to let the House function so that the Bill could be discussed, she stressed the BJP had supported it at the all-party meeting on August 21. Nor did she spare the government, accusing it of unduly delaying the Bill, leaving it to the last three days of the monsoon session.
Congress party managers, keen to see some business being transacted and ensure their party be seen as one that works for SC/ST welfare, decided on on Wednesday’s introduction. They’d issued a whip to ensure all MPs were present. Just before minister of state V Narayanasamy attempted to table the Bill, senior SP member Naresh Agrawal rushed towards the well of the House. He was stopped by BSP member Avatar Singh Karimpuri, who grabbed him by the collar. The marshals and other BSP members intervened. It appears Agrawal was attempting to reach the chair to snatch the Bill papers from Deputy Chairman P J Kurien. Later, SP leader Ramgopal Yadav said “The SP will do anything and everything to stop the Bill. We cannot be expected to follow parliamentary behaviour in such matters.”
The SC/ST Bill was cleared by the Cabinet on Tuesday and seeks to circumvent a Supreme Court order quashing decisions to this effect by governments in Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. The BJP, however, has stuck to its stand that it will not let the House function until the government agrees to its demands for cancellation of coal blocks and resignation of the Prime Minister.
