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| PM turns to Azad as opposition to Women's Bill mounts | | |
ABID SHAH
EARLY TIMES REPORT
NEW DELHI, Mar 8: Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare Ghulam Nabi Azad has turned out to be one of the main trouble shooters from Congress' side as the party's plan to get the Women's reservation bill through the Rajya Sabha received a rude jolt here today.
Soon after the Government fumbled and could not get the nod of the members in the Upper House for the Women's Bill to coincide and, thus, mark the 100th International Women's Day being observed the world over today, Azad was called by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for consultations.
Though other Ministers like Pranab Mukherjee, Pawan Kumar Bansal and Salman Khurshid too have been consulted by Prime Minister and the Finance Minister had a separate closed door meeting with Congress president and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi in the wake of the trouble faced by Women's Bill, Azad's talks with Prime Minister assume significance since the Samajwadi Party and Rashtriya Janata Dal announced the withdrawal of their support from the UPA today, asking for caste and community based quota in the seats to be reserved for women.
This has robbed the ruling coalition of at least 25 Lok Sabha members, reducing its strength in the Lower House at best to 290 since Samajwadi Party has 22 members in the House with the exception of Jaya Prada who has earlier been expelled from the party and RJD has four Lok Sabha members. Though the Government is yet not precarious, nevertheless the exit of SP and RJD has hoisted a red signal before the Government vis-à-vis the Women's Bill.
Moreover, Mamata Banerjee has expressed her reservations about the bill in its present form while trying to voice concern for women from minority and backward segments of society. All these factors gnawing at the Government plan to reserve 33 percent seats in legislatures are forcing it to summon all its skills, ammunitions and strength so as it is able to steer through the Bill despite mounting opposition against it.
And, thus, astute hands at politics like Azad have started drawing attention of the Congress bosses. This is more so since Ghulam Nabi Azad has been able to bring the DMK round the point of view of the Congress in May last year when the UPA-II was giving shape to its Central Council of Ministers. Azad had visited Chennai to sort out the differences with the DMK about power sharing.
The difference between then and now is that the Women's Bill is throwing up questions about seat sharing though not directly between the parties but indirectly that touches their vote base. An all party meeting is likely to be held anytime tomorrow to sort the issue out and arrive at a consensus.
Since the question of representation of minority has been thrown up by all opponents of the Women's Bill like Mulayam Singh Yadav, Laloo Yadav and Mamata Banerjee, the Government cannot afford to miss out on keeping its minority faces conspicuously on its side. Both Salman Khurshid and Azad thus suit the Government strategy now to counter the mighty challenge posed by the subaltern brigade over the Women's reservation bill. This is more so since the noisy showdown in the Rajya Sabha today over the Bill is pointing to the worst kind of polarisation among the MPs after the one seen over Indo-US Civil Nuclear Deal in July 2008.
Unlike then, the Government has both Left and BJP on its side, but the task before it is not winning over the Bill in a manner that can upset its social position vis-à-vis generally caste driven voting that has been on in all over North since quarter-a-century now. Congress has to see that its reconciliatory social positioning after years of caste and communal divide that went against it is not lost again.
Thus, in the high stake battle set off by today's incidents in the Rajya Sabha, the role of Congress managers whether Pranab Mukherjee or Azad is as important as has been the case at the time of the nuclear deal. |
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