The Naysayers

The national president of the BSP is a woman and the party is in favour of reservation for women. But the BSP is of the opinion that if women make up 50 per cent of the population,then why is 33 per cent reservation being brought in? There should be 50 per cent reservation for women. To bring in equality,there should be reservation according to their proportion in the population. Apart from this,our national president has written a letter to the PM,in which she has said that there are some flaws in the Women’s Reservation Bill. Those flaws should first be rectified and only then the Bill should be put before the House.

I would like to ask who are the women that reservation is being sought for? Reservation should be provided to women who are socially,educationally and economically backward,those

who have been denied the opportunity to come forward. Where are these women? These women are present among the Dalits,SCs,STs,OBCs,backward classes and minorities,and educationally backward as well as economically backward women from the forward castes. Reservation should be provided to these women.

The Bill seeks to cut into the existing quota for SCs and STs and provide reservation for women,thereby taking away from the main reservation provided to these communities. This is what we are protesting against. We are of the opinion and our party demands… that the reservation provided for women belonging to SCs,STs,economically and socially backward classes and those from the upper castes and minorities who fall under this category,should be separate from the general reservation already provided for these communities as a whole. If the women’s quota cuts into the main reservation,it will push these communities even further back…

According to the Bill,the reserved constituencies will be rotated every five years. So,when a woman is given a chance to work in a particular constituency,she will know from the first day itself that she will not be in that constituency after five years. This will lead to under-performance from the very start…

Instead of giving a filip to the reserved category women,the Bill will provide opportunities to a limited section of women who do not come under these categories. Therefore,we demand a re-look at the Bill before it is passed.

Give 15-17% reservation to Muslims

Mohammed Adeeb,Independent,Uttar Pradesh

What I have witnessed in the House in the last two days has both saddened me and made me feel sorry… What I have seen is deplorable but I am happy that various leaders have decided to bring women from rural areas and the fields to the greatest temple of India where laws are enacted,and empower them. It is a different matter that women in these areas are falling prey to dowry — our emphasis is not on that. They are not getting employment or education,but we are extremely keen on bringing them to Parliament…

I think it is time for our community to introspect. During parliamentary and Assembly elections,I have seen the trend is that if there are three lakh Thakurs and four lakh Muslims,the ticket is given to a Thakur since it is assumed that Muslims have few capable candidates so the community will have no choice but to vote for the Thakur candidate. I do not know how,in the prevailing conditions,our women will enter the electoral arena.

The honourable Prime Minister is present,and I want to narrate an incident in his presence to illustrate what kind of atmosphere prevails and what kind of society we have created for ourselves. My mother’s elder sister fought the 1936 elections against the Muslim League from Lucknow on a Congress ticket wearing a burqa. Eighty years later,is our society prepared for my daughter to stand for an election wearing a burqa? What will she be termed — a terrorist,backward,regressive? This is the society we have created. Our representation in Parliament was 50 to 55 per cent. It has fallen to 27 per cent today…

We love this government,we love and trust the Congress,we support the Congress,but we want to ask the Congress how long will we remain just voting machines? If the Gill Commission’s recommendation would have been accepted,parties would have been asked to reserve 33 per cent of the seats for women. But this was not done because women cannot be candidates,they cannot win elections,and parties would have been weakened. The aim is to not let the parties become weak,never mind that Parliament becomes weak.

I want to request the PM,my Congress brethren and my brothers from the Left to take back this Bill. We will remain with you but promise us that when you are putting in place 33 per cent reservation,then 15-17 per cent reservation must be given to Muslims. If you do not do this then you will definitely be doing us a grave injustice.

No to rotation and lottery system

Sharad Anantrao Joshi,Swatantra Bharat Paksh Party,Maharashtra

The position of my party can be very briefly summarised as follows. Political empowerment for women: a thumping yes,yes,yes. Reservation: a fairly big question mark. And rotation and lottery system: an absolute no,no,no. It was in 1986 that the Shetakari Mahila Aghadi of my party,the Rural Women’s Organisation in Maharasthra,decided for the first time to have 100 per cent women’s panel for contesting the Panchayati Raj elections. It was the Congress party,under Shri Shankar Lal Chauhan in Maharashtra,who opposed that idea and postponed all elections to the Pandhayati Raj for three years running. And it was only after that that they accepted the concept of 33 per cent reservation.

Sir,Hon. Mishra of the BSP raised the question: where does this reservation come from? This is the genesis of the 33 per cent. Now,the question is: has the reservation actually ever given benefit to any of the targeted communities? And our experience is not very happy. The problem could have easily been solved by a system of proportional representation rather than the party list system. That would take care of the entire set of problems connected with reservation. And,the scenes that we have witnessed in the last two days could have also been avoided had we included proportional representation instead of the party list system.

Lastly,coming to the lottery-cum-rotation system,this is not a minor defect. I still insist that this is a fatal defect in the system. Here,we choose a constituency list,and it is very likely that for that constituency,there may not be an enthusiastic woman candidate. On the other hand,it is likely that a man has nursed that constituency for some time.

This will unnecessarily create bitterness against the women’s movement. Sir,secondly,it is also likely that this opportunity will be used by established leaders for pushing the candidature of their family members which is not the purpose of this Bill at all. Sir,once a woman is elected,she would know that she does not stand a chance of getting the “woman reserved constituency” again. Therefore,she would not be equally enthusiastic about nursing the constituency. Similarly,the men candidates who get elected would also have doubts about their getting to contest that election once again from the constituency because the chances that it will be available to them would be only 50:50. Under these circumstances,Sir,the major effect will be that all the constituencies will be badly nursed.

And lastly,Sir,this kind of a reservation system will make it impossible for any House to have more than 33 per cent repeaters at any time. So,we will lack the experienced people in the Legislatures and Parliament. That could prove to be fatal for the Indian democracy.