Third front trips on women's quota

Sat, May 10 12:50 AM

The UNPA-Left relationship seems to have hit an air pocket over the SP's opposition to the women's reservation bill and its belligerent charge that the Congress brought forth the legislation under pressure from the Brinda Karat-Sushma Swaraj combine. The SP bracketing Brinda with Sushma has led to speculation that the attack isn't just political posturing to mollify its OBC whose anger party MPs voiced at the party's parliamentary board meeting on Thursday.

While the CPI(M) was guarded in its response, the SP showed no signs of thawing on the issue. "We cannot compromise our stand for the sake of upholding the third alternative idea.

If the third alternative proposal fails - so be it," senior SP leader Janeshwar Mishra said. Stating that the third alternative was based on the principle of "issue-based politics", he said the women's quota bill was an issue on which the Congress, BJP and Left were on one side and the SP and certain other parties on the other.

On Thursday, SP general secretary Amar Singh had described the bill as a "Brinda-Sushma bill". He accused the CPI(M) of "stabbing the UNPA in the back" while adding that women opposing the Marxists in Nandigram "are being raped by CPM men".

In response to Amar Singh's vitriolic comments, CPI(M) politburo member Brinda Karat merely said her party and the SP have had different approaches to the bill since 1999 but differences could possibly be narrowed down through parliamentary discussions. On Singh's criticism of her party on Nandigram, she said he had spoken differently on the issue in the Rajya Sabha.

"He may have changed his mind now," she said. Speaking in the Rajya Sabha during the winter session last year, Amar Singh had squarely blamed the Maoists for the Nandigram episode, stating that the Left Front government had failed "to some extent" to provide security to its people.

CPI MP Gurudas Dasgupta dubbed the SP general secretary's comments as "outrageous" and said that those who oppose the bill, suffer from gender superiority. "If this elementary demand is looked upon from a chauvinistic angle, it can only be construed as misfortune and male chauvinism," he said.

Former Defence Minister George Fernandes has also criticised the "disgraceful behaviour" of "socialist colleagues", while calling upon all members to allow the bill to be passed.

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