EDITORIAL

BJP’s Deception Scuttled Women’s Bill

YET again, the bill to provide 33 per cent reservation for women in Parliament and the state assemblies was allowed to be stalled in the Lok Sabha.

In the high-voltage drama that took place in the house on May 6, the BJP-led government conducted itself as the betrayer  of the cause through its by now infamous double-facedness and forked-tongue approach. Major political parties represented in the 13th Lok Sabha openly expressed their support for the bill and publicly stated their intention to vote for it. Given this, the government, instead of putting the bill to vote, chose to refer it to the Speaker of the Lok Sabha to arrive at a political consensus! Clearly, this was a subterfuge employed by the BJP to have the bill scuttled. It is well known that Shiv Sena, to whom the Speaker belongs, has openly opposed any reservations for women in the Parliament and the state assemblies.

The parties who had extended support to this bill account for nearly three-fourths of the strength of the Lok Sabha.  The bill, therefore, should have been put to vote and the country could then know as to who was sincere about their commitment and who had reneged on it.  The BJP, fearing such an exposure when a sizeable section of their MPs had voiced their opposition to the bill, adopted such diabolic tactics!  What is worse is the fact that the Vajpayee government has announced its abdication of any further responsibility towards evolving a political consensus on the issue.  "There is no question of any attempt to pass this bill in this Lok Sabha", the parliamentary affairs minister, Sushma Swaraj, announced  confirming that the government would no longer make any attempt to evolve a consensus on the issue.   She, in fact, went to the extent of ruling out any all-party meeting to be  convened by the prime minister.   Obviously, this was being done under the prime minister's direction!

The entire approach adopted by the government to have this bill passed smacks of duplicity.  Firstly, it was brought at the fag-end of the session deliberately to ensure that its stalling through disruption of the proceedings of the house cannot be set right due to lack of time.  Secondly, the BJP's vacillation was clear when Ms. Swaraj herself confirmed that she had offered to have the voting deferred after a discussion on the bill during a meeting in the Speaker's chamber.  The BJP's chief whip in the Lok Sabha also openly favoured the deferring of the vote on the issue. 

Contrast this with the frenzied attempts that the BJP makes to have a legislation enacted on any of the issues on its communal agenda, or the steamrolling of opposition to any legislation relating to privatisation. It even went to the extent of calling a joint session of the Parliament to ensure the passage of the draconian POTA.  Even on a Private Members bill seeking  a ban on cow-slaughter, the BJP mobilised its full strength to have this passed in the Lok Sabha. Now, of course, it is attempting to bypass the State's rights on this issue and seeking a constitutional amendment. It is abundantly clear that if the BJP were sincere, then  the government should have put the bill to vote and let the Parliament decide on the matter.  In pure and simple terms, the BJP allowed the bill to be sabotaged.

In these efforts, the BJP found the opposition to the bill in its present form by the Samajwadi Party, Rashtriya Janata Dal, Indian Union of Muslim League and NDA allies Samata Party, Janata Dal (United) and the Shiv Sena as a major convenience. It was well known, for quite some time now, that these parties had openly opposed the bill in its present form. Instead of allowing the members to express their opinion on the bill through voting, the government chose to allow the proceedings to be disrupted. The BJP is now taking  recourse to a `holier than thou' approach and blaming these parties  (whose strength in the house is  just about one-fourth) for not allowing this bill to be passed.

Those who have been opposing this bill have argued that reservations in the present form will only favour the elite and deprive the women belonging to OBCs and other under privileged sections from  reaching the Parliament and the legislatures. They had, therefore, argued for reservations for OBC women within the reservation for women in general.  In fact, one of the first to raise this issue in the Parliament many years ago, was none other than BJP “firebrand” leader Uma Bharati.

In any case, reservations for OBCs should surely include reservation for OBC men as well.  In the present proposal, the leaders of the Samajwadi Party, RJD and others seem to be denying  the benefits of reservation for OBC men!  While these issues could be and are being discussed separately by various committees in the  Parliament (for instance, on the question of reservations for minorities), the linking of this with the women's reservations was clearly to scuttle the bill in its present form and, hence, delay, if not deny, reservations  for women in general. Given, the present presence of OBCs in the Lok Sabha, who have come in without any reservations, on the strength of the political and social movements, it is perfectly possible that the same happens with the OBC women.   That is, of course, if the male-dominated matriarchal society will permit such opportunities and access to women.

This precisely is the point. Since the gender bias  against women is pronounced in our society today, it is only through  such reservations can women be given their due and move towards equality and empowerment.  The argument that only the elite will benefit out of such reservations is negated by the experience of womens reservations in the panchayats and other local bodies that have been in existence for over a decade now.

No doubt, in some cases, we see the phenomenon of  `pati pradhans' (husband acting on behalf of his wife who has been elected through such reservations).  On the other hand, we also see that  in states like West Bengal, nearly 40 per cent (well above, the reserved 33 per cent) of the local bodies are represented by women. It is only the naïve or the deeply motivated opposition to women's reservations who would argue that this 40 per cent constitutes the `elite'!

Sadly, it appears that the 13^th Lok Sabha under Mr. Vajpayee's leadership and Ms. Swaraj's direction will no longer proceed with the adoption of the bill seeking 33 per cent reservation for women.  The movement for giving the women their due and on the larger issues of the social and economic empowerment must, however, continue. It is only the strength of this movement, which cannot and should not be confined only to women, but must embrace the entire society, that will ensure that the first steps towards gender equality and  empowerment will be taken.