With only two days left for nominations for Janata Dal national president, the partys working president Sharad Yadav yesterday intensified his crusade for amending the womens reservation bill to include proportional representation for OBC and Muslim women in the proposed 33 per cent.
Let there be voting on the Bill without any whip from the parties and it will be clear whether there is consensus on the issue, Yadav said in a crowded press conference yesterday. Even if there is a whip he would vote against the Bill, he said.
Yadav is clearly building a constituency for himself in the predominantly Muslim-Yadav support base of his party in Bihar and other states. He did not try to hide that his behaviour in the Lok Sabha last Friday, when womens reservation Bill was taken up for a discussion, was not directed against Speaker P A Sangma or Prime Minister I K Gujral. He was merely reflecting the views of his constituency.
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After all we are answerable to our constituency. As far as my behaviour is concerned, its just the way I am, Yadav said.
His strategy has already produced results. Yadav was yesterday flanked by party leaders, most of them loyalists of Bihar Chief Minister and Dal president Laloo Prasad.
Yadav is seen in the party as a keen contender for the top post with a good support on the newly constituted national council and state councils of the Dal, who elect the president. He has become the centre of media attention after his defiant attitude on the womens Bill last Friday. Yadav is now regularly featuring in newspapers and television.
Sharad Yadav proposed that there should be a caste census in the country and the proposed 33 per cent seats for women should be divided into four - upper caste, OBCs, Dalits and Muslim - in proportion to their share in the population. His fear is that unless there is separate reservation for OBC women, upper caste women would occupy most seats as they were socially more advanced and educated then the OBCs.
We have taken 50 years to increase our (OBCs) strength in Parliament from eight to 280. Once 33 per cent reservation for women is implemented, we would be again be forced out of the Lok Sabha, he said.
It is surprising that most Janata Dal MPs who are backing Sharad Yadav on this issue either owe their allegiance to Bihar Chief Minister and Dal president Laloo Prasad, who is facing CBI charge on animal husbandry scam. Dal general secretary and railway minister Ram Vilas Paswan has openly challenged Sharad Yadav yesterday by blaming him for using the social justice plank for his personal benefit within the party.
In fact, many Dal leaders who are considered close to former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda - some of them have been the most vocal opponents of the womens Bill - are now criticising Yadav and vouching support for the Bill in its current form.
Differences in BJP on reservation
Our Political Bureau NEW DELHI
Differences in the BJP over reservation for other backward caste (OBCs) women in the womens bill came into the open yesterday. Uma Bharati, the firebrand MP from the backward Lodhi caste, publicly declared her support to the champions of reservation for OBC women.
Bharati, who is close to party President L K Advani, did not retract even when newsmen pointed out to her that Advani had publicly opposed OBC sub-quotas in the womens reservation bill, which Parliament is likely to consider in the monsoon session.
She tried to draw support from former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayees stand on the bill. Even Vajpayeeji has said that the issue needs to be debated, she said. The party has not taken a final view on this, Bharati held, adding that there would be a debate on the bill after which lets see what happens.
As the bill had come under the theory of social justice, there was all the more reason that the OBC clause should be included, she argued. The OBC women take moral values of upper castes but are treated like Dalits, she noted, adding that those who have demanded OBC quota in the bill should not be termed as opposed to the bill and anti-women.
However, Bharati clarified that she would go by the party-line once it was decided. BJP spokesperson Yashwant Sinha, who was present at the press conference, when Bharati gave the statement, was left with a lot of explaining to do. He, along with the partys Mahila Morcha President, Mridullah Sinha, had on Monday opposed any quota for OBC women. A visibly perturbed Sinha said: As Uma Bharati has said that there are differences in the party over the OBC clause, the party leaders will discuss the issue in detail and arrive at a consensus. The party line is clarified by Advani, but if there were differences of opinion the party will sit down and discuss the issue.
This is not the first time that Bharati has raised the issue. In fact, she is one of the few to have raised the issue before the bill was referred to a Parliament joint select committee. She and others, like Ganga Charan Rajput, were snubbed by the party leadership, which asked them to be silent on the issue and toe the party line.
Bharatis new aggressiveness, according to some BJP leaders, could be turned to the BJPs advantage. The party could claim that some BJP MPs also championed OBC quotas and thus escape being levelled as anti OBCs. In this situation, it is unlikely that the BJP would take a stand on the issue, one of them said.