The Hindu : 'Govt. did not help push through women's Bill'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, May 08, 2003

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National

'Govt. did not help push through women's Bill'

By Mahesh Vijapurkar

MUMBAI MAY 7. Political parties barring the Left and the Congress came in for a scathing attack for their "entirely negative role" vis-à-vis the Women's Reservation Bill in Parliament on Tuesday.

Brinda Karat and Subhashini Ali of the All-India Democratic Women's Association, at a press conference here said that a historic opportunity of voting a new progressive law was lost. The BJP and the Government emerged out of the episode "incompetent and impotent" by not seeking a vote despite full support, conveyed in writing by the Congress and the Left parties, and there were "enough MPs to give the required two-thirds majority required".

The Janata Dal (United), the Samajwadi Party and the Rashtriya Janata Dal had lost their "credibility" by their opposition to the Bill. Its leaders used "pretexts" to scuttle the Bill and the development showed that the social welfare platforms of these parties had "a sectarian nature".

Ms. Karat said that "a handful of MPs hijacked the entire Parliament".

The issue was not of disruption of parties but the Government's inability to carry forward its own legislation. The unprecedented support given in writing by the major Opposition party made for "a strong possibility" of enacting the law but the "Government did nothing to ensure it". It was "a betrayal of women and has a grave message for democracy".

The Lok Sabha Speaker, Manohar Joshi, had publicly stated three days earlier that there was opposition to the long-pending proposal of one-third quota for women and that there was no consensus. The Speaker thus "abandoned the neutrality of his office", she alleged.

Ms. Ali said the Government in the past had pushed through several laws despite their controversial nature. But now it had a majority yet it did not push through the Bill.

This showed that the BJP itself was not committed to the Bill.

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