Rajya Sabha scuffle over quota bill: Who said what

New Delhi: The Rajya Sabha today witnessed high drama as a scuffle broke out between Samajwadi Party (SP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) members when the government introduced a bill to provide for reservations in promotions for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in government jobs.

Members of SP were on their feet when the government was asked to move the bill. SP leader Naresh Agrawal moved towards the Well. He was encountered by BSP member Avatar Singh Karimpuri, who grabbed him by his collar to prevent Mr Agarwal from trooping into the Well.

Here are the reactions of various leaders after the incident:

Mayawati, Bahujan Samaj Party chief
The Congress delayed the Bill and did not introduce it in the last session as they wanted their candidate to win the Presidential elections. Now the BJP is not cooperating as they feel that by cornering the UPA government they can win the elections in 2014. I had appealed to the BJP to give importance to quota promotion bill instead of Coal-gate today. But they are being stubborn.

Naresh Agarwal, Samajwadi Party MP
In my 32 years as a legislator, I have not seen such a thing. The BSP MP was being offensive and I was not allowed to speak. This is similar to what happened in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly when there was a BSP govt.

Mulayam Singh, Samajwadi Party chief
This is unconstitutional. The bill was introduced and no one came to know about it. We will go to the people against this. The Congress Party will have to face the consequences then. This is a promotion to make junior a senior and vice versa. They (government) are making a mockery of rules. Are they running the government or making a joke? Is it constitutional to make junior a senior and a senior a junior?

Ravi Shankar Prasad, BJP spokesperson
I urge Ms Mayawati to stand with us on the issue of corruption. There are so many cases of corruption. Please stand with us on the issue of corruption. Social justice is an ongoing battle that has been going on and must go on.

Sharad Yadav, NDA convenor
Our party fully supports the bill for providing reservation for promotion in jobs to the SC/ST. But there are certain issues on which we have different stands from our ally BJP but there is no division in the NDA. NDA is one and will remain intact.

(With inputs from PTI)

Scuffle in Rajya Sabha over promotion quota bill; Govt says no time to pass it in this session

New Delhi: The image of MPs took another blow today with two members of the Rajya Sabha fighting with each other even as a bill to allow reservation in promotions for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in government jobs was being tabled. The BJP kept up its protest against the government over the coal scam, not allowing the House to function and get the bill passed.

After a meeting called by the Prime Minister to discuss the fallout of the scuffle and the chaos in Parliament, home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde said that there wouldn't be enough time to pass the bill.  Rajya Sabha had to be finally adjourned for the day just after 2pm after the opposition again shouted slogans against the government.

This session of Parliament ends on Friday. However, the bill will stay "alive" for all time since it was tabled in Rajya Sabha, which does not have expiry date, unlike Lok Sabha.

Mayawati blamed the BJP and the Congress for the adjournments and the delays in getting the bill passed and called both parties "snakes" after Mr Shinde said that the bill won't pass in this session. The government reacted by saying that it had done its job by tabling the bill. The SP said that it will continue to oppose the bill, which Mulayam Singh Yadav called "unconstitutional".

The two MPs who turned the floor of Rajya Sabha into a wrestling ring belong to the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party. The SP is opposed to the introduction of quotas in promotion for SC/STs and the BSP is the prime mover of the bill. The SP's Naresh Agarwal and BSP's Avtar Singh were seen pushing each other and exchanging blows even as Minister of State in the PM's Office V Narayanasamy quickly tabled the bill. He later said that he had been expecting some trouble so had not carried any pieces of paper with him. In a similar scuffle during the tabling of the women's reservation bill (which too the SP opposes), a copy of the bill was torn up.

Mr Agarwal sought to justify his action in Parliament by saying that the BSP member was getting "offensive" and not allowing him to speak. His party leader Ram Gopal Yadav defended Mr Agarwal by invoking the scriptures: "It's alright to talk about lowering the dignity but even in Vedas and Puranas... it's written that in emergency everything is justified."

The BJP accuses the government of using this bill to divert attention from its demand that the Prime Minister resign on the coal allocation issue. The BJP is not opposed to the bill but is wary of being seen as helping the government. BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad said that his party was not against social justice but insisted that it will not give up its demand for the cancellation of the allocations of 142 coal blocks which it says is at the root of the "coal-gate" scam. 

From: NDTV

Government to introduce reservation in promotions for SC/STs in Rajya Sabha today; Mulayam's party opposed

New Delhi: The government plans to introduce in the Rajya Sabha today, a bill to allow reservation in promotions for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in government jobs. The Union Cabinet cleared a proposal on Tuesday that seeks to amend four key articles of the Constitution to make that possible.

Amending the Constitution became necessary after the Supreme Court struck down in April this year, a decision made by Mayawati when she was Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, to provide reservation for SC/STs in promotion to higher posts in government departments. At an all-party meeting in August, most political formations supported quota in reservations. But Attorney General GE Vahanvati has warned the government that any law on the reservations issue should be framed with extreme caution because it is likely to be legally challenged.

The Prime Minister has said that a legally sustainable solution will be found. For now, the Congress-led UPA government has to ensure that Parliament sits long enough for the bill to be taken up. With only three days left of the current monsoon session, it has requested the main opposition party, the BJP, to help pass the Bill; the BJP has not allowed either House to function for the last 10 days demanding the Prime Minister's resignation in connection with a coal scandal and has made it clear that it will not relent till its demands are met. But the party supports the reservation-in-promotions bill and it remains to be seen if that will make it agree to let Parliament function so that it can be passed. Top BJP leaders met on Tuesday evening to discuss the matter and the party has decided to continue its protest in Parliament over the coal scam.

The bill will need the support of a two-thirds majority in both Houses of Parliament as it seeks to amend the Constitution. It entails a vote and the House has to be in order. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal has said the government is determined to pass it. If it does manage to get Parliament to function and pass the bill in the Rajya Sabha today, it plans to bring it in the Lok Sabha on Thursday.

Mulayam Singh Yadav's Samajwadi Party, which provides outside support to the UPA government and has bailed it out of sticky positions many times, has said it will oppose it this once. The SP was the lone dissenter at the all-party meeting in August. The SP wants all quota benefits to be extended to other backward classes (OBCs). "This stand of the cabinet is wrong. The Samajwadi Party is against this and we will continue to protest," senior SP leader Ram Gopal Yadav said yesterday.

Mayawati, who heads the Bahujan Samaj Party, is now making focused efforts to get political parties to cooperate and allow a discussion and vote on the bill. She has met BJP leaders Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley to seek their support. Ms Mayawati said on Tuesday, "We want to request for a voting on the bill in this session and request NDA to help us in this. We want UPA also to appeal to NDA to help us pass this bill."

When it quashed the Mayawati decision, the Supreme Court had questioned this criterion for promotion, saying the government needed to quantify that Dalits and backwards were insufficiently represented in the public services and therefore needed this quota. The court had said that three aspects needed to be looked into for reservations in promotions: backwardness, representation and overall administrative efficiency.

Though the amendments are aimed at legally combating any challenge, the bill might still run into rough weather in the courts. Constitutional expert PP Rao said that if the government brings in amendment without "curing the defects" pointed out by the Supreme Court then it may not stand legal scrutiny.

From: NDTV