Monsoon Session From Today; Expect More Shouting, Walkouts

New Delhi: The crucial monsoon session of Parliament begins today. This will be the last monsoon session before India goes of general elections. That is the only difference. The session is likely to be
marred by the usual dramas: pandemonium, hungama, walkouts and trading of charges. In the process, crucial bills would get buried once again.

The Congress announced that it would bring a no-confidence motion against the government and urged the Centre to accept it to enable a discussion. This will be the starting point of the dramas.

The Telugu Desam too is also planning a no-confidence motion, but Chief Minister of Andhra
Pradesh has not many friends to back him. So far, only the DMK has come in his support.
Amidst all this, the Women’s Reservation Bill, the instant Triple Talaq bill may not see the light of
the day.On Tuesday, the Modi government asked Rahul Gandhi to back a “new deal” for Indian women by getting his allies to back the gender quota legislation and extend support to efforts to end Muslim practices of divorce and re-marriage by way of triple talaq and nikah halala. Responding to Rahul’s letter to the PM calling for passage of the women’s reservation bill providing for one-third seats for women in legislatures, law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad thanked Rahul for his initiative to support the quota bill originally proposed by the Vajpayee government but said Congress back a package deal to ensure gender equality and representation.

“I propose that both the national parties — BJP and Congress — should come together and offer a new deal to Indian women to ensure quality and adequate representation. As part of the new deal, we should approve, in both Houses of Parliament, the women’s reservation bill, the law prohibiting triple talaq and imposing penal consequences on those who violate the law and the law prohibiting nikah halala,” Prasad wrote.Referring to triple talaq and nikah halala, the law minister said, “You will appreciate that the two not only give the women of the Muslim community an unequal treatment but also seriously compromise their dignity. As national parties, we cannot have two sets of standards in dealing with women and their rights.”

He also asked if Congress’s allies, who it has been coordinating with, would support the bills.
Congress allies like Samajwadi Party and RJD have been bitterly opposed to women’s quota,
demanding a sub-reservation for women belonging to OBC and Muslim communities.
The strategy is that while the Congress will support the bills, the shouting brigades of Lalu Prasad Yadav and Mulayam Singh would disrupt Parliament and derail the proceedings.

The BJP has also demanded Congress’s support for the bill granting constitutional status to National Commission for Backward Classes. “The bill also deserves your unqualified support for assured passage,” Prasad wrote to Rahul Gandhi.The two bills — according constitutional status to NCBC and prohibiting triple talaq — were passed by Lok Sabha but are stuck in Rajya Sabha as BJP lacks majority in the upper House and Congress was against passage of the bills in their current form.