New Delhi:
What made the government postpone the vote on a Bill that brought together the Congress, the BJP and the Left? Was it poor management or last-minute cold feet, as an angry Opposition now accuses?
Law minister Veerappa Moily who began the morning by saying this Bill is what India owes to its women, tried to justify the deferred vote. "The quest is of democracy. We could have passed the bill, but the bill of this stature and a historic bill, any constitutional amendment, you cannot bull doze the issue...Why should I be upset, we are proud of this."
(Watch: Law Minister Veerappa Moily speaks to NDTV)The Women's Bill was introduced by Moily after lunch and was bound to go through if it was put to vote. There were at least 182 members of Parliament who had committed their support to it. Just days ago, Sonia Gandhi made it clear how important the timing of the Bill was to her, saying it could be a "gift to India" on the hundredth anniversary of International Women's Day.
Government sources say they not only anticipated but expected Lalu and Mulayam Singh Yadav to withdraw support to the government over the Bill. On Monday morning, the Yadavs said they could not support the Bill because it does not protect the rights of Dalits and Muslims. If the Yadavs proceed with their threat, the government loses the support of 26 MPs, leaving it with a single-digit majority. That's uncomfortable, say party sources, because the Finance Bill or the vote on the budget has yet to take place. If the government loses the vote on the budget, it falls.
Rowdy MPs belonging to parties like Mulayam's Samajawadi Party and Lalu's Rashtriya Janata Dal held the House to ransom, attacking the Chairman of the Rajya SAbha, Vice President Hamid Ansari. When it became clear that this handful of MPs would not allow the House to function, why didn't Ansari ask for these MPs to be evicted? Government sources say leaders were worried that this would be seen as anti-democratic because the Bill mandates a constitutional amendment.
Some Congress leaders say that they were willing to consider a vote on the Bill without a discussion but the Opposition, and the Congress' own allies were firmly against this.
The Opposition points out that MPs opposed to the bill will force adjournments again on Tuesday, so the government should not have postponed either the discussion or the vote.
"There are enough provisions in the rules for the Chairman to run the House even if people are disrupting it. He's not powerless. The government is visibly nervous," said BJP leader Arun Jaitley.
Both the Left and the BJP insist that the Congress did not contact them before the bill was introduced to coordinate a strategy.