Earlier, the Lok Sabha was abruptly adjourned for 40 minutes in the afternoon following an uproar by a united opposition when Vajpayee refused to give any assurance for immediate withdrawal of the office memoranda.
Deputy Speaker P M Sayeed adjourned the House till 3.30pm IST soon after Vajpayee said the government was committed to the cause of reservations and would review the memoranda. The prime minister also said the Constitution would be amended if necessary.
But the opposition was not satisfied and demanded that the government immediately withdraw the orders.
Many members from all parties wanted to speak on the subject. The Congress and other opposition parties insisted that the prime minister should be present in the House and announce withdrawal of the controversial orders.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister P R Kumaramangalam said members could make their submissions and the prime minister would come to the House and respond. He recalled that the prime minister was in the House yesterday for making a statement on the subject.
But senior Congress politician K Karunakaran said there was no need for a discussion and the prime minister should come to the House and announce withdrawal of the orders.
Sayeed sought the co-operation of members and said one member from each party could speak and the prime minister would reply later.
But members like G M Banatwala and E Ahmed (Indian Union Muslim League) were not satisfied and said it was a question of propriety and the prime minister should be present in the House.
Sayeed retorted that the prime minister was willing to respond yesterday itself, but was prevented by the opposition.
Buta Singh said the Forum of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe Members of Parliament had been appealing to the government for the past year to withdraw the five controversial orders. One hundred MPs had submitted a memorandum to the prime minister, but there was no response, he said.
Minister of State for Personnel K M R Janardhanam, in his reply in the Rajya Sabha, had stated that the government had no intention of reviewing the orders, he said. This was highly objectionable, he argued.
Buta Singh said reservations for the Scheduled Castes and Tribes is a constitutional guarantee and nobody can violate the Constitution. He demanded immediate withdrawal of the orders. He also wanted the return of Ambedkar portraits in government offices.
P A Sangma (Congress), urging the government to withdraw the memoranda, gave details of what they contained. The first memorandum said if any Scheduled Caste/Tribe candidate is promoted against reservation superseding a general category candidate, the seniority of the general category candidate will be restored when he is promoted.
The second memorandum introduced post-based rosters, while the third did away with the concession of 5 per cent in marks for SC/ST candidates. The fourth said the Supreme Court ruling would not apply to Grade A posts, and the fifth stopped the special recruitment drive.
Sangma said issues relating to SC/ST candidates should be settled not by office memoranda but by legislation and put in the Ninth Schedule of the Constitution.
Gujral suggested that the ordinance drafted by the Paswan committee be promulgated.
Somnath Chatterjee (CPI-M) said that since the matter affects almost 30 per cent of the population, it should have been dealt with seriously by the government, which said in a letter on February 25 that it had "not been found possible to withdraw/modify any of these circulars". This was in response to an all-party delegation, which had met Vajpayee and then sent him a letter on January 29. Chatterjee also said that since this involves interpretation of a Supreme Court judgment, a commission should be set up to go into the issue.
Dr Subramanian Swamy (Janata Party) wanted to know why the government had taken no action since January. He said an ordinance should be issued in the inter-session period.
Meira Kumar (Congress) said the Supreme Court order had been wrongly interpreted. She advised members not to try and gain political advantage out of the situation and the government to react to the problems facing the SCs/STs so many years after Independence.
She pointed out that the Congress government had brought in the 77th constitutional amendment to undo the effect of a Supreme Court judgment.
Ashok Pradhan and Ratilal Verma (both BJP) said the problem was the creation of a previous government and the BJP-led coalition is keen to help the backward communities.
Prem Singh Chandumajra (Akali Dal) said reservations should be on the basis of economic status, while Ahamed wanted Muslims also to get the benefit of reservations.
UNI
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