In a heated exchange in the hallowed halls of the Lok Sabha, BJP Member of Parliament Nishikant Dubey resorted to historical recollections to rebuff Congress MP Sonia Gandhi’s fervent advocacy for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) inclusion in the women’s reservation bill. Dubey, while countering Gandhi’s stance, invoked a dramatic incident from 2012 when a bill pertaining to reservation for Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) had ignited intense clashes between the Congress and the Samajwadi Party.
“In this very august House, during V Narayanasamy’s presentation of a bill concerning promotional quota for SCs/STs, a stormy episode unfolded. Samajwadi Party’s Yashvir Singh dramatically snatched the bill from Narayanasamy’s grasp and forcefully tore it asunder. Within the same parliamentary precincts, Madam Sonia Gandhi, in a resolute act, was the first to intervene and confront Yashvir Singh,” recounted Nishikant Dubey.
“At that pivotal moment,” continued Dubey, “I had the audacity to remind her that she was not our autocrat, nor a monarch, and thus, unwarranted resort to violence was unacceptable.” He added, “Mulayam Singh himself acknowledged that the SP MPs owed their safety to the presence of BJP members. You attempted to imperil the lives of MPs.”
The episode Dubey referenced occurred in December 2012 when Yashvir Singh, a Samajwadi Party member, dramatically seized a copy of the Constitution (117th Amendment) Bill from Narayanasamy within the Lok Sabha. This bold act triggered pandemonium within the House and sparked a vehement exchange between the Congress and their ally, the Samajwadi Party. The latter vehemently opposed the concept of reservations in promotions for SCs and STs in government positions.
Sonia Gandhi, the leader of the Congress parliamentary party, lent her party’s support to the women’s reservation bill during this recent parliamentary session. She emphatically called for the immediate implementation of the proposed quota and urged for the extension of reservations to include SC, ST, and OBC women based on data from a caste census.
Initiating the debate on behalf of the opposition, Sonia Gandhi passionately expressed in the Lok Sabha that any delay in the enforcement of the reservation would constitute a grave injustice to Indian women.
The constitutional amendment bill, which was introduced in the Lower House on Tuesday, seeks to establish a 33% reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and state legislative assemblies. However, this reservation will only become effective following the completion of a census and delimitation process.
This parliamentary exchange serves as a stark reminder of the contentious history surrounding reservations in India, rekindling past controversies and debates within the country’s legislative chambers.
