Tuesday, May 06, 2003
Tuesday, May 06, 2003 |
| Front Page | ||
|
News:
Front Page |
National |
Southern States |
Other States |
International |
Opinion |
Business |
Sport |
Miscellaneous |
Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Obituary | Front Page
By Neena Vyas
The bill is expected to witness wide fissures in the two main political camps, the ruling and the Opposition. From the ruling National Democratic Alliance camp, the Shiv Sena is expected to oppose and the Samata Party appeared to be divided — one of its MPs opposed it in the Business Advisory Committee today, and the Janata Dal (United) has also consistently opposed the bill. In the Opposition camp, the Samajwadi Party made clear its preference for the "alternative proposal'' to make it mandatory for political parties to select a pre-determined minimum percentage of women candidates for Lok Sabha and Assembly seats. The Rashtriya Janata Dal was also opposed to reservations for women unless a backward castes' women's quota was created within the overall women's quota. On the other hand, the bill in its present form — 33 per cent of all Lok Sabha and Assembly seats to be reserved for women and 33 per cent of the SC/ST quota of seats to be reserved for SC/ST women — has the full support of the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Congress, the Left parties, the AIADMK and the DMK, the Telugu Desam Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party as well as a number of smaller parties. Since the Women's Reservation Bill is to be taken up tomorrow after two other Constitution Amendment bills related to delimitation to make 2001 Census as the base and empower States to levy service tax (to prepare for the Value Added Tax regime) there is a question mark on the availability of time. But as of now, the legislation which has seen bitter battles inside the House during the 11th and the 12th Lok Sabhas when attempts were made to introduce it will be put to vote tomorrow in the Lok Sabha and on May 8 in the Rajya Sabha. This was decided at the BAC of the Lok Sabha after a meeting that lasted 90 minutes and witnessed strong opposition from several parties, including the Samata, the Shiv Sena and the SP. While the Congress Party and the CPI (M) assured full support of their parties for the bill in its present form, the SP president, Mulayam Singh Yadav, wanted more time to put in place a political consensus on the "alternative proposal'' for which he had already been given one month's time since the all-party meeting on the issue on March 7, the Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Sushma Swaraj, said today. As for the Rashtriya Janata Dal — there was no representative of the party in the BAC today but outside the House, Mr. Raghuvansh Prasad Singh said the RJD wanted a backward caste quota within the women's quota, suggesting that without this his party would oppose the bill. Talking to reporters later, Ms. Swaraj said the decision to bring the bill now was taken when it became clear that no unanimity was possible even on the alternative proposal. "The CPI (M) in a letter to the Prime Minister made it clear that it would support the Bill in its present form (and not if the bill was diluted as in the alternative proposal),'' she said. The Congress President, Sonia Gandhi, had also earlier written to the Prime Minister assuring him of her party's full support for the bill "which would fulfil the dream of Rajiv Gandhi'' who had initiated the panchayati raj bill giving women reservation in all local body elections.
Related Stories:
Printer friendly
page
News:
Front Page |
National |
Southern States |
Other States |
International |
Opinion |
Business |
Sport |
Miscellaneous |
|
|
|
The Hindu Group: Home | About Us | Copyright | Archives | Contacts | Subscription Group Sites: The Hindu | Business Line | The Sportstar | Frontline | The Hindu eBooks | Home |
Copyright © 2003, The
Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of
this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of
The Hindu
|
