Anti-rape bill tabled amid DMK fiasco in Parliament

New Delhi, March 19: Despite several controversies and hullabaloos in the

, Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde finally tabled

in the Parliament on Tuesday, March 19.

The government, bowing to political pressure, retained the age of consent for sex at 18 years. The government earlier had proposed to lower the age to 16, however, citing pressure from opposition parties, retained the age.

The bill has been passed in the House amid ruckus over DMK's announcement regarding pulling put support from UPA government.

M Karunanidhi-led DMK party decided to withdraw support over Centre's stand on US resolution on Sri Lanka atrocities on Tamils in the country.

Karunanidhi, during a press conference in Chennai on Tuesday, announced that five ministers of his party would submit their resignations soon.

With the pullout of the 18 DMK MPs in the Lok Sabha, the strength of the UPA government declines from 295 to 277 in the upper house of Parliament.

The DMK has also ruled out any question of external support but said it may consider changing its stand based on the government's stand on US resolutions against Sri Lanka.

The UPA, however, has letters of outside support from the Samajwadi Party (SP) as well as the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) which have 22 and 21 MPs respectively.

OneIndia News