Shah pulls up party MPs for skipping Parliament
BJP president Amit Shah on Tuesday reprimanded party MPs for their absence from Parliament, a day after the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha forced changes to a crucial bill that now faces delay.
In an embarrassment for the government, the opposition parties on Monday made an amendment to a bill to give constitutional status to the national commission for backward classes, raising the number of members from three to five to include a woman and a minority candidate from the OBC category.
The government could junk this bill and bring a new one as it believes the change makes the legislation legally untenable because such reservation was not permitted in constitutional bodies, sources said.
“People have many options. If you have been elected, you should do justice to it,” sources quoted Shah as saying at a parliamentary party meeting in New Delhi.
Seventeen of the 57 BJP MPs, including seven ministers, skipped the House on Monday afternoon.
The party, said sources, had sought an explanation from them.
As many as 31 members of the National Democratic Alliance were missing from the House, where the ruling coalition is in a minority.
Though Opposition was also not full strength but the amendment was passed with 75 members voting in favour and 52 rejecting it.
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