Chennai Corner

On the same page
Kanimozhi, Rajya Sabha MP and DMK chief and TN CM Karunanidhi’s daughter, made a stirring speech about how the Women’s Reservation Bill is a bill whose time has come. Dr V Maitreyan of the AIADMK echoed similar sentiments when it was his turn. During the passage of the Women’s Reservation Bill in the Rajya Sabha, both the DMK and AIADMK were on the same page. A miracle when you consider that if Karunanidhi says black, Jayalalitha says white.

But as they say, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. If the bill is passed in the Lok Sabha and the Constitutional Amendment adopted, TN will be among the first states, where both the DMK and AIADMK will seriously have to put their money where their mouth is. So when the assembly elections come in 2011 – or later this year as is speculated – then 78 of the 235 seats in the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly should be reserved for women. Currently, there are 22 women MLAs in the house of whom three are ministers. 

The number of women MLAs in the assembly has been more than 10 per cent only twice since the first election back in 1957, underlying the fact that TN’s women have evolved but not its political parties. This, despite Periyar, TN’s fountainhead of Dravidian parties, advocating equal rights for women back in the 1920s. But for those who argue that reservations won’t change the status of women, a good place to look at is TN where a woman heads one of the major Dravidian formations (the AIADMK). The election that brought Jayalalitha to power in 1991, also brought many women into the assembly. But, despite her being a CM for 10 years, the lot of women has not significantly improved.

For instance, when Jayalalitha became CM for the first time, she brought in her wake 31 (of the 102 who contested) other women. When she lost in 1996, there were only nine women MLAs (of the 156 who contested) in the house. When she came back to power in 2001, there were a total of 25 MLAs (of the 112 who contested) in the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly. The figure dropped to 22 when she went of power although 156 (the largest number of tickets given by all parties) were in the fray in the 2006 elections.

The discordant note
The PMK, which is demanding a quota within the bill, has never fielded a woman candidate in the Lok Sabha elections since it was founded by Dr S Ramadoss 21 years ago. The PMK says no to smoking – recently it was out there attacking a soft target when the film Asal was released and the lead actor Ajith was shown on a poster smoking – and also to the Bill. Its sole representative in the Rajya Sabha, former health minister Anbumani Ramadoss played hooky when the Bill was tabled.

Not to rain on their parade or anything after their vocal support when history was made, but the two Dravidian parties have not exactly been progressive. In the Lok Sabha elections last May, 47 of the 824 candidates in the fray were women, which is about 5.5 per cent. But, looking at the bright side, 47 is still better than 20 in 2004, 15 in 1999 and 10 in 1998. Then again, the DMK which contested 21 seats gave two tickets (constituting 9.25 per cent) while the AIADMK which contested 23 seats gave two tickets (that is 8.69 per cent) to women. Vijayakanth’s DMDK gave 1 out of 39 (Regina Pappa in Sivaganga who lost to our home minister P Chidambaram). Left gave nothing in 2004 and 2009 – is Brinda Karat who was all over the papers hugging BJP’s Sushma Swaraj aware? Vaiko’s MDMK and PMK gave none while BSP gave 2 (one of whom former IAS officer Sivakami contested and has now quit to start her own party) and so did the BJP. What is telling is that of the 47 who contested, 26 were independents.

The facts on the ground
Women have been a vote bank that all parties have wooed. When M G Ramachandran founded the AIADMK back in 1972, his party had overwhelming support from women. And that was only partly because of the swashbuckling roles he played in his films that had women swooning over him. He was also known to hand over wads of cash when women came to him with a sob story because he had his heart in the right place.

Now, deputy CM M K Stalin has been cultivating women too through frequent trips to Self Help Groups all over the state. In fact he has even promised that the 33 per cent reservation in local bodies would be hiked to 50 per cent. TN has fulfilled the constitutional requirement of one third representation. As many as 4,075 village panchayat chiefs of a total of 12,618 panchayats in TN are women. And like everywhere else in the country, many of these women are just “rubber stamps”, largely because they are illiterate, but the real power behind the throne are men. Says Suguna Mary, a sarpanch, “I’ve heard many women members complaining that police and revenue officials disrespect them, even ignore them.” And here’s a clincher from Vasantha Rajendran, president, Tamil Nadu Federation of Women Panchayat presidents, “There are vice-presidents who do not allow women chiefs to sign cheques for development work.”

And even voters are skeptical. “When a woman candidate is introduced, people ask about her family background, educational qualifications, and if she is fit for the job. But when the candidate is a man, they just ask his name and where’s he’s from,” says CPIM MLA Balabharathy who first became a legislator in 2001. And hear it from IT minister Poongothai, who ideally should not fit the profile the bill targets because she became an MLA from the same seat (Alangulam) in 2006 after her father, former minister Aladi Aruna, was hacked to death. But even she talks of gender discrimination. But, not in her profession as a gynaecologist. “Women have to be more thick-skinned in politics,” she says.