Women's bill unlikely this session

Governments priority is to get financial business passed

“Are we short of problems that we add one more to it,” said a senior Congress leader and Union minister when asked whether the government was going ahead with the Bill in the Lok Sabha in this session.

He said there were no plans to bring the Bill in the remaining part of this session, underlining the fact that the government’s priority was to get the financial business passed and desist from any fresh controversy.

The government had so far been saying that the Bill would be introduced in the Lok Sabha this session.

It has changed its opinion in view of differences among leaders at an all-party meeting held earlier this month to break the logjam over the Bill and the Yadav trio declaring a virtual war on the issue.

Mulayam Singh (Samajwadi Party), Lalu Prasad (Rashtriya Janta Dal) and Sharad Yadav (Janta Dal-United), staunch opponents to the Bill, are sticking to their demand for quota within quota and UPA-ally Trinamool Congress has also joined the chorus.
The 21-member Samajwadi  Party and the four-member Rashtriya Janta Dal support  the government from outside and have threatened to withdraw support if it went ahead with the Bill.

Not only did consensus elude the meeting, the RJD and SP utilised the meeting of 13 parties to discuss price rise to garner support for their cause.

The Bill has taken a back seat in the government’s scheme of things in view of the BJP and the 13-party grouping brought together by Left parties planning to corner the government on the price rise issue.

The Left parties were on the side of the Congress as also the BJP in the passage of the constitutional amendment Bill in the Rajya Sabha.
The Bill envisages 33 per cent quota for women in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies.