The Women’s Reservation debate has triggered much turmoil within the Congress and the BJP, but both parties assert that matters are totally under control, writes Pramod Kumar
To celebrate the passage of the Women’s Reservation Bill in the Upper House, Sonia Gandhi had invited the entire Congress parliamentary bandwagon to a party. The mood was upbeat or at least so it seemed. When the MPs queued up to congratulate Sonia, she suddenly asked one of them whether he was congratulating her for the sake of it or was he really happy at the turn of events. The poor man was startled out of his wits. he managed to utter a few incoherent words like ‘historic’ and ‘landmark’ before sneaking out. But as soon as he came out of the venue, he was heard confessing to one of his aides that he was worried if he would manage a party ticket for himself in the next polls.
There is a sense of dejection among both Congress and BJP MPs. In the Congress, which has only one supreme power centre, the dissent is rather subdued. However, a lot of party MPs are of the opinion that either the percentage of seats to be reserved should be lowered or the rotation system should be more transparent. In short, they want some sort of change in the draft before the Bill is pushed in the Lok Sabha. One disgruntled MP said delimitation had already created havoc in the last elections, and if the Bill is passed, the political careers of many MPs will be all but over.
A large section of such Congress MPs is in touch with Sharad Pawar. They want Pawar to exert pressure to bring in desired changes in the draft Bill. In fact, there are a few MPs who have started exploring the possibility of joining the NCP itself. Jubilant at these developments, Pawar took no time in changing his tune and is now in favour of scaling down the number of seats reserved. He has also assured both Mulayam Singh Yadav and Lalu Prasad Yadav that he’ll raise the issue in the next UPA meeting.
Congress supremo Sonia Gandhi wants the Bill to be passed at any cost. She has asked Ahmed Patel and Pranab Mukherjee to convince Lalu and Mulayam. Pawar is also in the game. Although the Yadav satraps have announced the withdrawal of their support to the government, they know quite well that they don’t have the numbers to bring the government down. In the present scenario, it would be impossible for them to garner the support of the required 32 MPs. On the other hand, good sense prevailed on Mamata and she fell in line following her meeting with Pranab Mukherjee. DMK threw a bit of a tantrum but Sonia and Manmohan both flew to Chennai to show its patriarch some light. For good measure, Karunanidhi reportedly bargained to save the Cabinet berth of his elder son Alagiri, who was under fire from all quarters. Sources say that Kalaignar has also reportedly asked the PM to go slow on the investigations initiated against T.R. Baalu and A Raja.
To celebrate the passage of the Women’s Reservation Bill in the Upper House, Sonia Gandhi had invited the entire Congress parliamentary bandwagon to a party. The mood was upbeat or at least so it seemed. When the MPs queued up to congratulate Sonia, she suddenly asked one of them whether he was congratulating her for the sake of it or was he really happy at the turn of events. The poor man was startled out of his wits. he managed to utter a few incoherent words like ‘historic’ and ‘landmark’ before sneaking out. But as soon as he came out of the venue, he was heard confessing to one of his aides that he was worried if he would manage a party ticket for himself in the next polls.
There is a sense of dejection among both Congress and BJP MPs. In the Congress, which has only one supreme power centre, the dissent is rather subdued. However, a lot of party MPs are of the opinion that either the percentage of seats to be reserved should be lowered or the rotation system should be more transparent. In short, they want some sort of change in the draft before the Bill is pushed in the Lok Sabha. One disgruntled MP said delimitation had already created havoc in the last elections, and if the Bill is passed, the political careers of many MPs will be all but over.
A large section of such Congress MPs is in touch with Sharad Pawar. They want Pawar to exert pressure to bring in desired changes in the draft Bill. In fact, there are a few MPs who have started exploring the possibility of joining the NCP itself. Jubilant at these developments, Pawar took no time in changing his tune and is now in favour of scaling down the number of seats reserved. He has also assured both Mulayam Singh Yadav and Lalu Prasad Yadav that he’ll raise the issue in the next UPA meeting.
Congress supremo Sonia Gandhi wants the Bill to be passed at any cost. She has asked Ahmed Patel and Pranab Mukherjee to convince Lalu and Mulayam. Pawar is also in the game. Although the Yadav satraps have announced the withdrawal of their support to the government, they know quite well that they don’t have the numbers to bring the government down. In the present scenario, it would be impossible for them to garner the support of the required 32 MPs. On the other hand, good sense prevailed on Mamata and she fell in line following her meeting with Pranab Mukherjee. DMK threw a bit of a tantrum but Sonia and Manmohan both flew to Chennai to show its patriarch some light. For good measure, Karunanidhi reportedly bargained to save the Cabinet berth of his elder son Alagiri, who was under fire from all quarters. Sources say that Kalaignar has also reportedly asked the PM to go slow on the investigations initiated against T.R. Baalu and A Raja.
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