The government's bid to rush with the constitution amendment bill to provide 33 percent reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and the assemblies on the international women's day on Monday was fought back by three small parties with protests that paralysed both the houses of parliament.

The bill was to be debated in the Rajya Sabha but irate Samajwadi Party, Rashtriya Janata Dal and Bahujan Samaj Party members did not allow business even in the Lok Sabha by repeatedly rushing to the well shouting slogans and forcing adjournments.

There was an ugly scene in Rajya Sabha when some MPs from these parties tried to climb up the podium and throw torn copies of the bill on the dais of chairman Hamid Ansari after he called Law Minister Veerappa Moily to move the legislation for debate. This reminds a similar scene witnessed in Lok Sabha more than adecade back when the same bill was tried to be introduced.

Marshals physically stopped the members from climbing up and quickly removed torn pieces of paper from the desk of the chairman who adjourned the house for the third time since morning, until 3 pm to prevent any scuffle among the members as some members from other parties rushed to control the unruly colleagues.

The bill was introduced by the government in 2008 and it has been vetted and cleared by the parliamentary committee headed by Jayanthi Natarajan. Electronic media fuelled anger and protests by those opposing the bill by wrongly claiming the Rajya Sabha chairman had introduced the bill, mistaking his remarks on the centenary of the
international women's day.

The day began with a reference to the women's day in both the Houses, by Ansari in the Rajya Sabha and by Speaker Meira Kumar in the Lok Sabha. Pandemonium broke out at both the places as soon as they tried to start the Question Hour.

The Samajwadi Party members raked up the issue of Rangnath Misra's report on minority reservation to disrupt the
question hour and rushed into the well, forcing the first adjournment. They insisted that this issue as also reservation of backward classes should be settled before getting the bill passed.

In Lok Sabha, SP, RJD and BSP members rushed into well at the start of the question hour, first demanding rollback of petrol and diesel prices and then shifting to the issue of the women's reservation bill. Braving noisy scenes, the speaker continued with the question hour for some 20 minutes before SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav rushed towards the podium to fight with her and he was followed by RJD chief Lalu Prasad and BSP group leader Dara Singh.

Even while Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee was persuading the trio not to climb up the speaker's podium, a Samajwadi Party member tried to climb up from the other side. A shocked Meira Kumar adjourned the house. The same scenario in zero hour brought second adjournment and the post-lunch session began with third adjournment by the deputy speaker when some members continued to protest.

In the meanwhile, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi were huddled into separate meetings to formulate a strategy to get the bill through in the Rajya Sabha despite disturbances. Parliamentary
Affairs Minister Pawan Bansal was told to speak to the Rajya Sabha chairman to try once more for the debate or otherwise put the bill to vote at 4 pm and use the marshals to remove those disrupting the voting.