A war of words broke out todaybetween BSP chief Mayawati and the government as the bill forjob promotion quota for SCs and STs could not be passed in LokSabha during the Winter Session.
Slamming UPA for not making adequate efforts to havethe Constitution (117th Amendment) Bill passed, Mayawati saidshe always doubted the Centre's sincerity on the issue andvirtually put the government on notice.
"We will write to the Prime Minister for a specialsession. We will give them one or two more chances. We willraise the issue again in the Budget Session," said Mayawati,whose BSP with 36 members in both the Houses of Parliament hadbailed out the government on the FDI issue. The Winter Sessionended today.
BSP and arch-rival SP provide crucial outside support toUPA, which does not enjoy a majority in Rajya Sabha.
"This is a bill not of BSP or Mayawatiji. This is thebill of Congress party. Let us be very clear on it. It is thebill of the government and the current government is theCongress government," Parliamentary Affairs Minister KamalNath said.
Mayawati said the government should have made efforts tohave SP members suspended from the House after one of themsnatched the bill from Minister for Personnel and PublicGrievances V Narayanasamy.
"The whole country has seen the drama by the governmenton the issue. We condemn the Centre and Congress for notgetting the bill for reservation in promotion passed," shetold reporters outside Parliament premises.
Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde, who is also the Leaderof the Lok Sabha, also rejected Mayawati's allegation thatCongress was not serious about the passage of the bill.
Shinde said Congress President Sonia Gandhi had taken an "aggressive stand" in Lok Sabha yesterday on the issue "andpeople who say this are wrong".
Petroleum Minister Veerappa Moily said, "The way Gandhireacted with emotion shows the party's intention on the issueof reservation. If anybody made comments on that, then theyare not honest."
Nath accused BJP of adopting opposite stands in RajyaSabha and Lok Sabha on the quota bill.
"Unfortunately, BJP which supported the bill in RajyaSabha changed its stand when the bill reached Lok Sabha.
Earlier, they said it was fully legal and said the countryneeded it. Now they say it is not constitutional," he said.
"This was only the reflection of politics they played.
They mean something else and say something else," Nath said.
Both Nath and Shinde said they would talk to variousparties to evolve a consensus so that the bill could be takenup in the Budget Session.