The Rajya Sabha on Monday saw high drama and embarrassment for the government as a Constitution amendment bill on backward classes was changed after some amendments moved by the Opposition were passed by the House.
The Constitution (123rd Amendment) Bill, 2017, providing for setting up of a National Commission for Backward Classes, was passed after dropping Clause 3, to which four amendments was approved by the House earlier.
The dropped clause pertains to the insertion of a new article 338B about the constitution and powers of the National Commission for Backward Classes.
The amended bill will now have to be returned to the Lok Sabha for its fresh approval. The Lower House had already passed the bill but in the Upper House it had been referred to a Select Committee as the Opposition had wanted more scrutiny.
Days after the Select Committee submitted its report, the Rajya Sabha on Monday took up the Constituent amendment bill, whose passage requires two-third majority of those present and voting in the 245-member House.
While the clauses of the bill were being put to vote, Congress members Digvijaya Singh, B K Hariprasad and Hussain Dalvai moved a number of amendments to clause 3.
One amendment sought increase in the number of members of the proposed commission from three to five with reservation for a member from a minority community and another for women.
Another amendment spoke about protecting the rights of states by making their recommendations binding.
Minister for Social Justice Thawar Chand Gehlot said the suggestions proposed through the amendments would be kept in mind while framing the rules.
However, Digvijay Singh pressed for division of votes, saying "they (government) are jumla politics people" and could not be trusted.
Subsequently, the amendments were passed by 74 to 52 votes, causing an embarrassment for the ruling side which has a strength of 89, if JD(U)'s 10 members are also counted with them.
This led to a deadlock as the clause which was amended was required to be passed by a two-third majority of those present and voting. This meant that the both the ruling and the opposition had to vote together.
A war of words ensued between the ruling and the opposition benches over this as the government was not ready to accept the amendments moved by the Congress members.
However, since the amendment had already been passed, there was no going back, Deputy Chairman P J Kurien ruled.
At the same time, he said since the proceedings of passing the bill had been initiated, it had to be completed anyhow.
Some members said if the bill was not passed, there would be disappointment among the backward classes who have been waiting for the Commission.
To find a way out, the proceedings were suspended for 10 minutes.
Afterwards, Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad said the government should accept the amendments.
To this, Leader of the House and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the members could not be confined to any particular community and questioned whether the Congress wanted "exclusivity to be a part of the Constitution?"