Desperate to fend off criticism that the Congress is disrupting Parliament over a personal legal matter, party president Sonia Gandhi has asked women MPs to chalk out a strategy to corner the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance government on the pending women’s reservation bill.
In a bid to delink the party’s ongoing protests in the Parliament from the National Herald case, Sonia Gandhi called Congress MPs Kumari Selja and Sushmita Deb on Monday and told them to call a larger meeting of women MPs to brainstorm about taking forward the issue of the women’s reservation bill which seeks to reserve 33% seats in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies for women.
A final call on this matter will be taken after the meeting of Congress women MPs slated for Tuesday.
Searching for issues
The move to dredge up the now-forgotten women’s bill follows the realisation that the party’s decision to derail parliamentary proceedings had not been received well by the people who believe the Congress is resorting to protests to shield Sonia and Rahul Gandhi. The mother and son have been asked to appear in a trial court on December 19 in connection with the pending National Herald case.
Although there were some doubts in the party about continuing its protests in Parliament, it eventually decided not to backtrack since it was felt it would be seen as a sign of weakness. Instead, the Congress decided to shop around for “people’s issues”.
The party’s strategy was evident last Friday when senior Congressman and leader of opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Ghulam Nabi Azad, repeatedly stressed that the Congress was not disturbing Parliament because of the National Herald case but to protest the different yardsticks used by the Modi government in dealing with the opposition and BJP chief ministers like Vasundhara Raje, Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Raman Singh.
“Let me make it clear, we are not protesting on the National Herald case but over the inaction against three BJP chief ministers who face corruption allegations,” Azad told the Rajya Sabha.
Protesting an insult
Following up on its new strategy, the Congress did not allow the Rajya Sabha to function on Monday to protest the atrocities against Dalits in Punjab after reports said the limbs of two Dalit men in Abohar district were chopped off. The party has been effective in disrupting the Rajya Sabha where it has the requisite numbers to do so. But in the Lok Sabha, where it lacks numerical strength, its MPs resort to protests for a few hours and then stage a walkout.
Congress MPs followed this script on Monday when they walked out of the Lok Sabha to lodge the party’s protest against the "insult" to Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy who, they alleged, was asked to stay away from a function scheduled to be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The tone was set by Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi who said: “The Prime Minister has insulted the people of Kerala by stopping our Chief Minister from attending a function. The chief minister is the voice of the people of Kerala. This is simply not acceptable to us.”
Besides other subjects, the Congress has identified the women’s reservation bill in its bid to embarrass the government and change the political narrative which is currently going against the party. At the same time, Sonia Gandhi hopes the Congress will be able to appeal to the women voters by putting the bill back on the political agenda.
Inconclusive discussions
The Bharatiya Janata Party has pledged support for this legislation but, like previous governments, it will find it difficult to ensure its passage since there is stiff opposition from regional parties like the Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Samajwadi Party. The regional parties have been demanding a separate sub-quota for women from the scheduled castes and tribes, backward classes and minorities.
The Modi government’s discomfiture on this was quite clear when Law Minister DV Sadananda Gowda was asked if the ruling alliance planned to re-introduce the legislation. “The issue involved needs careful consideration on the basis of consensus among all political parties before a bill for amendment in Constitution is brought before Parliament,” he told the Parliament.
The Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government had pushed through the legislation in the Rajya Sabha in 2010 amid stormy protests at Sonia Gandhi’s behest. However, the bill could not clear the Lok Sabha roadblock and has been in cold storage since then.
Keen to give the impression that the protests in Parliament are not related to the passage of the Goods and Services Tax Bill, Congress leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad, Anand Sharma and Jyotiraditya Scindia attended a luncheon meeting hosted by Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to discuss their differences on the key economic reform bill. Predictably, the discussions were inconclusive. This meeting is nothing but posturing by the Congress and the ruling alliance as both want to dispel the public perception that they are not willing to accommodate each other. With only six working days left, it appears highly unlikely that the bill will be passed in this winter session.
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In a bid to delink the party’s ongoing protests in the Parliament from the National Herald case, Sonia Gandhi called Congress MPs Kumari Selja and Sushmita Deb on Monday and told them to call a larger meeting of women MPs to brainstorm about taking forward the issue of the women’s reservation bill which seeks to reserve 33% seats in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies for women.
A final call on this matter will be taken after the meeting of Congress women MPs slated for Tuesday.
Searching for issues
The move to dredge up the now-forgotten women’s bill follows the realisation that the party’s decision to derail parliamentary proceedings had not been received well by the people who believe the Congress is resorting to protests to shield Sonia and Rahul Gandhi. The mother and son have been asked to appear in a trial court on December 19 in connection with the pending National Herald case.
Although there were some doubts in the party about continuing its protests in Parliament, it eventually decided not to backtrack since it was felt it would be seen as a sign of weakness. Instead, the Congress decided to shop around for “people’s issues”.
The party’s strategy was evident last Friday when senior Congressman and leader of opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Ghulam Nabi Azad, repeatedly stressed that the Congress was not disturbing Parliament because of the National Herald case but to protest the different yardsticks used by the Modi government in dealing with the opposition and BJP chief ministers like Vasundhara Raje, Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Raman Singh.
“Let me make it clear, we are not protesting on the National Herald case but over the inaction against three BJP chief ministers who face corruption allegations,” Azad told the Rajya Sabha.
Protesting an insult
Following up on its new strategy, the Congress did not allow the Rajya Sabha to function on Monday to protest the atrocities against Dalits in Punjab after reports said the limbs of two Dalit men in Abohar district were chopped off. The party has been effective in disrupting the Rajya Sabha where it has the requisite numbers to do so. But in the Lok Sabha, where it lacks numerical strength, its MPs resort to protests for a few hours and then stage a walkout.
Congress MPs followed this script on Monday when they walked out of the Lok Sabha to lodge the party’s protest against the "insult" to Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy who, they alleged, was asked to stay away from a function scheduled to be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The tone was set by Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi who said: “The Prime Minister has insulted the people of Kerala by stopping our Chief Minister from attending a function. The chief minister is the voice of the people of Kerala. This is simply not acceptable to us.”
Besides other subjects, the Congress has identified the women’s reservation bill in its bid to embarrass the government and change the political narrative which is currently going against the party. At the same time, Sonia Gandhi hopes the Congress will be able to appeal to the women voters by putting the bill back on the political agenda.
Inconclusive discussions
The Bharatiya Janata Party has pledged support for this legislation but, like previous governments, it will find it difficult to ensure its passage since there is stiff opposition from regional parties like the Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Samajwadi Party. The regional parties have been demanding a separate sub-quota for women from the scheduled castes and tribes, backward classes and minorities.
The Modi government’s discomfiture on this was quite clear when Law Minister DV Sadananda Gowda was asked if the ruling alliance planned to re-introduce the legislation. “The issue involved needs careful consideration on the basis of consensus among all political parties before a bill for amendment in Constitution is brought before Parliament,” he told the Parliament.
The Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government had pushed through the legislation in the Rajya Sabha in 2010 amid stormy protests at Sonia Gandhi’s behest. However, the bill could not clear the Lok Sabha roadblock and has been in cold storage since then.
Keen to give the impression that the protests in Parliament are not related to the passage of the Goods and Services Tax Bill, Congress leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad, Anand Sharma and Jyotiraditya Scindia attended a luncheon meeting hosted by Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to discuss their differences on the key economic reform bill. Predictably, the discussions were inconclusive. This meeting is nothing but posturing by the Congress and the ruling alliance as both want to dispel the public perception that they are not willing to accommodate each other. With only six working days left, it appears highly unlikely that the bill will be passed in this winter session.