Uproar in Parliament over Women's Bill; both Houses adjourned till 4 pm - India News and Travel Times Provides India-centric and other News and Features

The Rajya Sabha witnessed unprecendented scenes leading to an adjournment for the fourth time on Monday as determined SP, RJD and BSP members entered the Well of the House, ripped off mikes and tore up papers in an attempt to stall the Women's Reservation Bill from being taken up for consideration. When repeated appeals of the Rajya Sabha Chairman Hamid Ansari failed to bring order in the House, he called for adjournment till 4 PM. However, despite the ruckus and unruly scenes Union law Minister Veerappa Moily succeeded in tabling the Constitution (108th Amendment) Bill. Earlier, The Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, attended a Congress party meeting to formulate the floor strategy for ensuring the passage of the Women's Reservation Bill. The Prime Minister consulted with Leader of the House and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Sonia Gandhi's political secretary Ahmed Patel and Parliamentary Affairs Minister P.K. Bansal. The meeting took place after the RJD and the SP announced that they were withdrawing outside support to the UPA Government over its determination to table the Bill. Both parties have described the Bill as discriminatory, and not supportive of women who belong to the minorities, the Dalits and the Other Backward Classes (OBCs). Leaders of the two parties -Lalu Prasad and Mulayam Singh Yadav- said they have instructed their 27 MPs - 23 from the SP and four from the RJD- to quit. Earlier, both parties disrupted Question Hour in the Rajya Sabha over the non-implementation of the Mr. Justice Ranganath Misra Commission Report on minority welfare, leading to an adjournment of the House. Soon after the Chairman of the Upper House, Mohammad Hamid Ansari read out a message on International Women's Day, SP and RJD members demanded a discussion on why the commission's report recommending reservation to minorities, was not being implemented.