The government said on Tuesday that it would hold a discussion on the Women's Reservation Bill in the Rajya Sabha and not bulldoze the passage of the evolutionary measure involving amendment of the Constitution.
"A Constitution amendment bill of this dimension is evolutionary in nature and (the government) does not want to just bulldoze it. It is not just to by-pass a discussion," Law Minister M Veerappa Moily told media-persons in New Delhi.
"Tomorrow, after 50 years someone will question that such an important bill was passed without a discussion, without a dialogue. We never wanted to be intolerant about it. There are people who opposed it...that was a national shame," Moily said.
"I don't think it will augur well for the persons or the parties which demonstrated ....the ugliest ever done," Moily said.
Moily said, "Attacking the Vice President of India who is the Chairman of the House has never happened.They targeted a wrong person, it was totally unwarranted. We would still want to bring them around.Whatever they are doing is not correct. Ultimately, what is the cause they are trying to uphold."
On the demand of RJD, SP and other opponents of the bill for a quota for OBC women within the proposed measure, the Minister said unless reservation was provided to women in general the government could not provide the quota. "They know it is not Constitutionally possible," he said.
Moily also said that "after 1935, the country has not gone for a national census of the OBCs and, therefore, data was not available. In the absence of that, whom are you going to give (reservation)" and added a national census could only be done in 2021.
