New Delhi, June 8
Greek philosopher Socrates has suddenly emerged as the new reference point in the Socialists’ opposition to the women’s reservation bill, this despite the fact that the philosopher had a higher opinion of women than most of his companions.
As though the confusion caused by JD-U chief Sharad Yadav’s “I will do a Socrates act” was not enough, Samajwadi Party (SP) supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav today took over the anti-women quota baton from his Bihar colleague and compared the passage of the bill - in its present form - to ruling alliance’s attempt to poison critics (of the bill) - like Socrates was poisoned for standing for the truth.
The SP stalwart, however, had his own truth to tell as he participated in the debate on the presidential address in Lok Sabha. Like a jilted lover blessed with the last chance to pour his heart out, Mulayam took a huge dig at Sonia Gandhi: “Congress mein to Soniaji ki marzi ke bina ek patta bhi nahi hilta.” He was obviously referring to UPA chief’s decision to dump SP as a pre-alliance partner in Uttar Pradesh.
In order to broad-base the remark, Mulayam ensured he also referred to the power which Mayawati, Jayalalithaa and Mamata Banerjee wielded in UP, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal, respectively.
The SP leader was, in fact, at such a loss to hide his insecurity due to women’s growing influence in the lower house and the country that he said he saw in the bill a “conspiracy to decimate top Lok Sabha leadership, including LK Advani, MM Joshi, Lalu Prasad and Sharad Yadav”. The BJP benchers naturally appeared clueless to what Mulayam was saying, but the latter went on nevertheless.
“The law is dangerous for all who have reached here after ages of hard labour,” said a wary SP chief before asking the leader of the house, Pranab Mukherjee, to convene an all-party meeting to resolve controversial issues. SP, BSP and RJD are for quota within quota and inter-party reservation.
“If that’s not done, be ready for nationwide protests and then don’t blame us for being anti-women,” was Mulayam’s parting shot. Interestingly, the SP chief’s utterances were loaded today with potshots at the Congress, which had rejected his advances in UP. “You are in a majority today, but you may not be similarly placed always,” said Mulayam Singh, reminding the grand old party the fate it met in 1989.
