The issue was raised in both Houses of Parliament. In the Lok Sabha, Opposition members walked into the well of the House twice. Several of them even demanded the resignation of Jethmalani over his reported remarks at a press meet yesterday.

Even BJP allies like MDMK leader Vaiko and AIADMK member S.R. Muthiah said they did not approve of scrapping the reservation policy. Jethmalani was not in the House for most part of the debate but in his defence he said that some newspapers had not got him right. He wanted the reservations to continue for another 30-40 years, he stated.

Vajpayee said it was unfortunate that the House was divided over reservations for Scheduled Castes and Tribes. He said the BJP had even supported States wherereservation was continuing at above the 50 per cent level.

The issue was raised by Leader of Opposition Sharad Pawar, who read from a newspaper report on Jethmalani's press conference. He said the Government was out to scrap the reservation policy. MPs from the ruling party challenged him to read out the entire report rather than confining himself to parts. Janata Dal leader Ram Vilas Paswan backed him saying he had always doubted the Government's intentions when it talked about reviewing the Constitution. ``The Prime Minister should give a clarification or we will demand the Jethmalani's resignation,'' he said.Parliamentary Affairs Minister Madan Lal Khurana got up to speak but was shouted down by the Opposition. Nitish Kumar also gave up his first attempt to speak because of heckling by the Opposition. Opposition members were in the well of the House when Vajpayee walked in from the RS and appeared to be in no mood to listen.

Jethmalani began his defence by declaring that he was a ``reverentialstudent'' of Dr B.R. Ambedkar; he considered the Constitution holier than any other book available in the country; and he had been an active supporter of the Mandal Commission recommendations.

He said his remarks had appeared in a distorted manner in some newspapers. He said the reservations should continue for another 30 or 40 years, until the ``last member'' of the SC and ST reached the status of the rest of the society.