Sources said the government did not want the Bill to be taken up last week, perhaps realising that all its members were not present. (Representational)
The government faced embarrassment in the Rajya Sabha on Monday, when the Opposition outwitted it and forced passage of an amendment, which resulted in the nullification of a key clause in a Constitutional amendment bill. It now turns out that the Bill, granting Constitutional status to the National Commission for Backward Classes, was listed for last Thursday (July 27) as well but the government was not keen to take it up then due to lack of adequate numbers.
The Congress had issued a three-line whip for Thursday but, interestingly, the party had not issued a whip on Monday — it had just orally asked its members to try and be present in the House. The episode has the Congress elated, with its leaders arguing that it not only showed the BJP’s poor floor management, but also punctured its line of argument that the main opposition party was anti-OBC.
Sources said the government did not want the Bill to be taken up last week, perhaps realising that all its members were not present. Any Bill, which amends the Constitution, requires two-thirds majority of those present and voting. Congress leaders said the amendments, proposed by the party and other Opposition members, were known to all. The government, they said, had ample time to have a dialogue with the Opposition or at least ensure all its members were present.
With the BJP accusing the Congress of being anti-OBC, Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Ghulam Nabi Azad, asked tongue-in-cheek, “Where were their ministers and MPs if they were so serious about the Bill?”
“Reservation to OBCs were given during Narasimha Rao’s time in the 1990s. Had we been anti-backwards, we would not given reservation to them,” he added. “It was a Constitutional amendment. For such a serious Bill, every single ruling party member should have been present… That means they were not interested in the passage of the Bill… The government deliberately ensured its defeat,” Azad said.
He said the amendments moved by Congress members were “more pro-OBC” than provisions provided by the government. “In the Bill, the government wanted to set up a three-member commission. It was not mentioned even one of them would be an OBC. Our amendment that the commission should have five members and all of them should be from backward communities. Of the five, one should be a woman and one from the minority communities because there is a huge backward section in minority communities too. Our suggestions were more broad-based and more pro-OBC,” he said.
