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Asia-Pacific

India posed to adopt women empowerment bill

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-03-10 17:05

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NEW DELHI - Two Indian regional party leaders, Rashtriya Janata Dal's Lalu Prasad Yadav and Samajwadi Party's Mulayam Singh Yadav, Wednesday withdrew their plan to bring in a no-confidence motion against the government in the Lok Sabha or Lower House of Parliament to oppose the voting for a women empowerment bill.

The two leaders were unhappy over the way in which the Bill won the vote in Rajya Sabha or Upper House of Parliament Tuesday despite their vociferous protests, which led to the suspension of seven of their Members of Parliament (MPs) from the Rajya Sabha.

The bill, which would give 33 percent of the seats in the Lok Sabha and regional assemblies to women, was adopted by the Rajya Sabha Tuesday evening and is expected to be passed by the Lok Sabha Wednesday.

If the bill is passed by the Lok Sabha and at least 50 percent of the states, then 181 of the 543 seats in the Lok Sabha and 1, 370 out of a total of 4,109 seats in the 28 state assemblies will be reserved for the women.

After announcing withdrawal of support to the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, the two parties, which are from the states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, have announced that they would bring in a no-confidence motion the Lok Sabha, but have since abandoned the plan citing lack of support.

Mulayam Singh Yadav and Lalu Prasad Yadav contacted parties such as Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), Janata Dal (Secular), Shiv Sena and the Akali Dal to move a no-confidence motion, but got a negative response.

According to the Indian constitution, at least 50 MPs need to sign the notice to move the no-confidence motion for Speaker Meira Kumar to accept it.

And, they don't have the numbers, nor do they have support of any other party on the issue.

"No question of bringing forth a no-confidence motion against the government as we do not have the required numbers," said Lalu Prasad Yadav.

"We have only four MPs, no-confidence can only be brought by big parties," a clearly annoyed Lalu said.

As a matter of fact, the no-confidence motion was a non-starter as most of the opposition parties, especially the BJP and the left-wing parties had voted in favor of the Bill and hence they cannot oppose the government over the issue.