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Women's Bill: PM blames coalition politics

By Neena Vyas

NEW DELHI JAN. 24. The bill for political reservation for women was as good as pronounced dead with the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, today deciding not to blame the Opposition, but "coalition politics'' and the "lack of majority for the Bharatiya Janata Party'' for his Government's inability to bring forward legislation to reserve one-third of seats for women in the Lok Sabha and the State Assemblies.

A group of BJP women activists from the `Mahila Morcha', led by the party president, Venkaiah Naidu, met Mr. Vajpayee at his residence this morning to congratulate his Government for amending the laws related to evidence in rape cases and legislation on sex-determination tests which were being misused to get rid of the female foetus.

Briefing reporters later, Neera Shastri, morcha spokesperson, said that they had asked the Prime Minister why the women's reservation bill had not been passed yet. "Mr. Vajpayee said that he was heading a coalition government, that the BJP did not have a majority and there was no political consensus, hence the difficulty in legislating on this.'' Although the Congress, the Left parties and some of the smaller regional parties have publicly stated that they would vote for women's reservation, the BJP has so far been blaming the Opposition parties for lack of cooperation on the bill.

The arithmetic in Parliament, in fact, allows the Constitution amendment to be passed if the constituents of the National Democratic Alliance, the Congress, the Left and some of the regional parties support it. But today, it seems Mr. Vajpayee admitted the lack of political consensus within the NDA on the bill.

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