Women's Bill put off again

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, DEC. 21. The Women's Reservation Bill drama was today enacted both in the two Houses of Parliament, resulting in their adjournment, and before Parliament met inside the Speaker's chamber where the Prime Minister virtually endorsed the view that there should be a ``compromise'' and suggested that the ``right'' thing to do would be to send the matter to the Election Commission.

It was evident from the two acts of the ``theatre of the absurd'' that it was a show meant to send out a political message that efforts were made to get the legislation adopted, when in fact seriousness was missing, as alleged by the Congress and the Left parties. The result also was along expected lines: the Bill has been put off again.

At the end of the day it was clear that the Bharatiya Janata Party as well as some of its allies had decided to go soft on 33 per cent reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and the State Assemblies and were in fact peddling the view that it would be best to send the matter to the Election Commission (which could suggest amendment of the Representation of the People Act to make it mandatory for political parties to nominate women candidates for at least one-third of all seats contested by them).

In the Lok Sabha, the trouble began even before the Speaker took his chair and within minutes the House was adjourned till 2 p.m. only for the act to be repeated again when it was adjourned for the rest of the day. The whole day was lost. In the few minutes of din and noise MPs shouted, gesticulated and rushed into the well despite protests from the Congress and Left benches that be allowed to speak and get their views heard.

In the Rajya Sabha, members did not disturb question hour, but immediately after that women members, cutting across party lines, raised the issue loudly wanting the bill to be introduced in the House (the bill has already been introduced in the Lok Sabha during a previous session). A few minutes of trying to maintain order, and then the chair adjourned the House. But unlike the Lok Sabha, when it resumed, the House functioned normally for the rest of the day.

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