BJP leaders hope that the United Front government would drop the womens reservation bill, which is slated to be taken up during Parliaments monsoon session. The party is caught on a cleft stick on the issue. They are committed to supporting the bill, which is popular stand with women voters, but are reluctant to see the bill take effect.
The controversy over the bill would continue till the UFs steering committee meeting scheduled on May 25, one leader said. In the face of stiff opposition to the bill from some of the UF constituents, the Front would be left with no choice but to drop the bill on the pretext of building up a consensus, the leader held.
Therefore, the leaders argue, there is no point in raising an intra-party debate on the issue of reservation for other backward caste women. This argument has helped the party tame backward caste MP, Uma Bharati, who has recently mellowed her militant stance on the issue. She even criticised Janata Dal leader Sharad Yadav and alleged that his action was intended to scuttle the bill.
One day prior to this statement from Jaipur, she had publicly declared her support for the inclusion of sub-quotas for the OBCs and argued that those championing this should not be termed anti-women.
The change in her tone came after she was told by some party leaders in Delhi that there was no point in joining issue on the subject in view of the uncertain fate of the bill, a party office-bearer said.
She was told that the BJP could take an offensive stand on the bill and demand that the government bring the bill for discussion in the House.
Bharati thus has made amends for the mistakes in Delhi of going against the party line. Her recent statement on the bill is far more consistent with the party line, he held. It was enough that she was seen as not joining hands with Sharad Yadav, he added. Such a move could create problems for the BJP as it has a substantial number of MPs belonging to the OBC.
When Bharati first raised this issue in the Lok Sabha, she incurred the displeasure of many party veterans. Former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee had advised her to avoid the media on the OBC clause issue. She kept a low profile and did not insist on a chance to speak, when the issue cropped up again in the Lok Sabha on the concluding day of the budget session.
Her faux pas on Tuesday at Delhi, where she sounded a discordant note on the bill, was her gut reaction to a newsman query, a BJP leader claimed.
Her aim at the press conference was merely to announce the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM)s tree plantation programme, he pointed out.
Although her view on the OBC clause is not liked by senior party leaders, they have decided to give her a long rope because of the public stand she took in the Lok Sabha. It was impossible for her to go back on a statement she gave in the Lok Sabha, he defended.
Party vice-president Sunder Singh Bhandari yesterday said Bharatis stand was her personal view. The partys line has already been articulated by Advani. BJP spokesman Yashwant Sinha said the party is opposed to any reservation based on caste or religion, so far as the womens bill was considered.
