Women’s Bill put to vote in RS, despite Opposition’s protest
2010-03-09 [16:20:00 hrs] | |  | The Rajya Sabha on Tuesday put to vote the contentious Women’s Reservation Bill that reserves 33 per cent of legislative seats in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies for women. In a dramatic sequence of events after the house reconvened at 3 pm, Chairman Hamid Ansari, despite protests from the suspended RJD and SP MPs, carried out a voice vote seeking consent for the adoption of the motion for voting on the bill. |
| | | After the motion was adopted, the Chairman put the bill to vote.
However, as it is a Constitution Amendment (108th) Bill, it can be only cleared after four rounds of voting in its favour.
A Constitution amendment needs a two-thirds majority in voting requiring the support of 155 MPs in Rajya Sabha for its passage. The bill has clear backing of at least 165 MPs in the House with an effective strength of 233.
To bring some semblance of order in the house the protesting MPs were physically evicted from the well of the house by marshals.
There are reports that one of the protesting MP Kamal Akhtar of the Samajwadi Party first resisted his eviction and then asked for a glass of water only to break the glass and threaten the house that he will harm himself if the bill is put to vote. He was later evicted using force.
The Bharatiya Janata Party added to the pandemonium by protesting the government's move to put the Bill to vote without a debate, forcing Ansari to agree to a debate on the issue.
Senior BJP leader and Leader of Opposition Arun Jaitley then opened the debate by retreating his party’s support to the bill.
He condemned the way in which opposing MPs are protesting the bill but also stressed for the need to hear them out.
He was followed by senior Congress leader Jayanti Natrajan and CPM’s Brinda Karat.
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