PM calls for all-party meet today for consensus on women's quota bill

PM calls for all-party meet today for consensus on women's quota bill
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE

NEW DELHI, DECEMBER 21: Anticipating another two days of chaos in Parliament by opponents of the women's reservation bill, the Prime Minister has called yet another all-party meeting tomorrow amidst fears that the bill may once again be put into cold storage.

After a riotous morning in the Lok Sabha, when slogan-shouting Samajwadi party and RJD members took over the well of the House, holding up proceedings during question hour for nearly 45 minutes, the government decided to take a breather: convene the all party meet in the hope that a magical consensus can be conjured overnight.

The shouting began as soon as the House assembled. Paying scant heed to Deputy Speaker P M Sayeed's repeated entreaties that they let the House proceedings continue, Samajwadi Party and Rashtriya Janata Dal members kept up the slogans demanding that the women's bill should not be tabled without a consensus.

The two parties are demanding that the provisions of the bill reserving 33 per cent of elected seats to women, shouldbe further sub-divided to accommodate women belonging to the minorities, scheduled castes and tribes and other backward classes.

Though facing the chair while raising slogans, it was quite evident that much of the ruckus was aimed at catching the attention of mediapersons in the press gallery above. Hoping to thwart the members, Sayeed at one point ordered that the Doordarshan cameras and microphones be turned off, but it made little difference to the agitated members.

Curiously enough among the most vociferous opponents of the bill were Phoolan Devi and Kanti Singh, of the SP and RJD, who squatted in the well of the House all morning.