Thaindian News

New Delhi, March 14 (IANS) Despite several hiccups that the women’s reservation bill is facing in parliament, Law Minister M. Veerappa Moily Sunday night said the central government is confident to pass the bill in the current budget session.
“We want to pass the bill this session. We are very confident,” Moily told the CNN-IBN news channel in an interview.

He said the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government and its chairperson Sonia Gandhi, the Congress, the Bharatiya Janata Party and many others are totally committed to passing the bill, and that the idea of consulting all those who are opposing the bill in the current format is to reduce friction in the Lok Sabha.

“We want to take everybody on board. We want to reduce friction in the Lok Sabha,” he said.

He, however, said that consultation does not mean that the opinion of one or two persons will prevail upon the overwhelming majority. Consultation “is a democratic process and we want a smooth sailing of the bill.”

Moily said, in a country like India, “voluntary reservation (of seats for women by political parties) is ideal, which has not happened over years”.

The Rajya Sabha last week passed the historic bill giving one-third representation to women in all legislatures.

Opposition to the bill continued to stall parliament till Thursday when Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee offered discussion with all “concerned parties” before moving it in the Lok Sabha.

Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav has said he, along with Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) president Lalu Prasad and Janata Dal-United (JD-U) chief Sharad Yadav, would continue to fight against the bill.

When asked about chances of many MPs losing their constituency due to 33 percent reservation, the law minister said the central government will formulate another law in parliament to rotate the reserved seats.

“Such rotation is allowed in local bodies and another law will provide the rotation system.”