MPs of Bahujan Samaj Party and Samajwadi Party were involved in a scuffle in Rajya Sabha after the union government introduced the Constitution Amendment Bill to allow quota for people from Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in promotions in government jobs.
Interestingly, both BSP and SP are allies in the UPA but have different views on the contentious Bill.
Although BSP is supporting the Bill and Mayawati is meeting senior leaders of different political parties to get support for the Bill, SP leaders are campaigning with the political parties not to support the Bill.
The problem started soon after Deputy Chairman PJ Kurien asked the government to move the Constitution (117th Amendment) Bill, 2012.
Members of SP tried to stall the proceedings of the house. When SP MP Naresh Agarwal proceeded towards the Well, Avatar Singh of BSP stopped him and pushed him in the house.
Soon after BSP MP Avtar Singh clashed with Naresh Agarwal, SP MP, and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called for a meeting with AK Antony, defence minister and Sushil Kumar Shinde, home minister, to discuss the development.
There is division within political parties on the contentious Bill as no political party, except SP, want to be seen working against SC/ST by opposing the Bill.
Maharasthra based Shiv Sena is also not in favour of the Bill and wants NDA not to support the Bill in the Parliament.
There is division with NDA also as BJP is non-committal on the issue and wants Prime Minister to resign before allowing the Parliament session to resume, which has been stalled for the past 11 days.
JD(U) is supporting the Bill but the party leadership has decided to follow BJP as they want to be seen opposing the BJP in the Parliament.
The issue had come to light after reservation provisions for SC/ST in government jobs in Uttar Pradesh were struck down by the Supreme Court.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had called an all-party meeting on August 21 and sought suggestions from all political parties for a ‘legally sustainable solution’ to the proposal.
While talking to the senior leaders of all political parties, the Prime Minister had said that the Supreme Court had upheld the validity of all these four amendments in 2006, but the apex court had stipulated that the states concerned would have to show in each case the existence of the compelling reasons — backwardness, inadequacy of representation and overall administrative efficiency — before making provisions for reservation.
