National

Caught In A Vicious Circle

All political parties agree on reservation for women, but the bill is now on the backburner due to lack of consensus

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Caught In A Vicious Circle
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IN the end, the much-touted women's reservation bill remained just a slogan. All the political parties had tagged this issue to their election manifestos but when the time came to implement it, all of them backtracked. Most took the plea that the modalities hadn't been worked out. Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda also hadn't done his homework: before spouting bold statements that he was keen to see the bill through, he should have first consulted the United Front's constituents and ensured a consensus in his own house.

As a result, Gowda played hide-and-seek with women MPs all through Parliament's winter session, unwilling to explain why he had reneged on his promise to put the 81st Constitution Amendment Bill (which provides a 33 per cent quota for women in Parliament and state assemblies) to vote. "Every day until December 20 (the last day of the session) I asked for an explanation but he kept putting me off," said CPI MP Geeta Mukherjee, chairperson of the joint select committee to which the bill was referred—two days after Gowda said it would not be referred to a select committee.

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The 31-member parliamentary panel's report favoured immediate passage of the bill—though there were some dissenting voices on the modalities. By now, Gowda was not willing to take a risk because if the amendment was defeated, he would be under pressure from the Opposition to quit.

Says a Janata Dal MP: "He couldn't risk having the bill defeated in the Lok Sabha since he had personally tabled it." Gowda's

fears of defeat were not unfounded. As activist Jyotsna Chatterjee pointed out, he was not able to ensure the support of even his own party. MP M.A.A. Fatmi is a case in point; he was ready to openly defy party whips in favour of the bill. In fact, if Gowda had put the bill to vote on September 13 as promised, it would not have been passed for lack of quorum.

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Opposition to the bill cut across party lines. In Parliament, the debate grew increasingly frivolous (with one MP pointedly telling his women colleagues that "making a bill" was not like "making dosa") until Uma Bharati hit upon the demand for a special OBC quota within the 33 per cent proposed by the bill—again without specifying any number. This was enthusiastically taken up on the plea that "just to get advantage of this bill, only some fashion parade women should (not) come out and capture this Parliament".

MPs Phoolan Devi, Meira Kumar, Mamata Banerjee, Nitish Kumar and George Fernandes were among those who clambered on to the OBC bandwagon. Later, having successfully confused the issue, Uma Bharati shifted position and said her objection should not be used as "an excuse to stall the bill". But the damage had been done and the bill was consigned to the backburner.

MP Renuka Chowdhry points out that the 33 per cent quota for women has nothing to do with special quotas for minorities or OBCs. Samata Party MP Nitish Kumar's claim that "without reservation for backward castes, women cannot get fair representation in Parliament" should also apply to male MPs from backward areas.

The select committee report merely suggests that the Government "consider the issue" of reservations for OBC women. In a note of dissent, committee members Hannan Mollah and Chandra Kala Pandey said any move to set aside a special quota for OBC women would dilute the objectives of the bill by "creating subdivisions on the basis of caste".

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Off the record, male MPs admitted the insistence on quotas for OBC women was merely a politically correct way of stalling quotas for women. Indeed, the all-too-transparent double-speak adopted by the 'men's club' in the House drops away in Central Hall, where MPs joke about setting up creches in Parliament, taking crash cooking lessons and shopping for bangles.

Rajesh Pilot distinguished himself by remarking that if 39 women MPs could cr

Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray was more honest, stating that he was opposed to the very concept of the Bill but would support it in Parliament because of political compulsions. Reflecting his views, his party recently passed a resolution in the Mumbai Municipal Corporation demanding exemption from the mandatory reservation of one-third of seats for women.

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While Thackeray and many other leaders declare that parties should voluntarily give more tickets to women, activists point out that no party president has tried to promote women within the party structure. The number of women in Parliament has fallen from 39 in 1991 to 36 in 1996. MP Jayant Malhoutra suggests that instead of passing the buck to Parliament, parties should be urged to keep 50 per cent of their tickets for women, but women's groups say this is not practical in an era of coalitions and alliances, when parties contest seats selectively.

The threat of losing their seats is the main fear among the male MPs. Even if their membership is not under immediate threat, the proposed rotational system for seat reservation implies that an MP may nurture his constituency for five years, only to find himself ousted by a woman. "There is a threat perception and there is bound to be some discomfort, but the sense of unfairness arises from taking a narrow view. Besides, we have promised to review the whole issue of quotas for women after 15 years. By then, we may not need it any more," says Chowdhry.

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Fatmi is afraid of proxy politics: "Mia gallery mein baithenge, bibi House mein. Ijazat lekar woh button dabayegi (the husband will sit in the gallery and the wife in the House. She will take his permission before voting)". He argues that he sees no justification for quotas, when "progressive" countries like the US and UK haven't introduced them. But Chowdhry dismissed the argument: "Why should we follow the West? Let us set the agenda for the world".

MUSLIM leader Syed Shahabuddin, like Fatmi, feels the Bill would be an exercise in tokenism, because the bibis who would enter Parliament might not have the faintest idea about the affairs of the nation. "Let us admit that there is a gender difference...many women do not want to enter public life. Family life gets disturbed". He favours an "incremental" system of reservation for women, starting with 15 per cent and then, as more women become capable of participating in political life, increasing it gradually.

Activists say the argument that women cannot deal with government policy is silly. Quite a few male MPs do not participate in debates. As for fears that only "fashion parade" women will get into Parliament without OBC quotas, they say the reality of today's electoral arithmetic, relying on caste and communities, will not allow that. Chowdhry is exasperated that "bad floor management" let slip a historical opportunity—women MPs and groups presented a splintered front. She also feels that the men were unprepared for the bill and should have been brought around gradually. "The thrust of the bill was diluted because it became a numbers game. So many seats, so quota. The bill is about empowering motivating women," she adds.

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Chatterjee  insists that women's groups have to "take an aggressive stand". rallies, memorandums, campaigns and intensive lobby- already being planned. Says Kalindi All-India Democratic Women's "We have our doubts if the ever be passed. It's a vicious circle. are far too few women MPs to press but if there were more, we wouldn't the bill in the first place".

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