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Panel on women’s Bill headed for deadlock

NEW DELHI: With political parties sticking to their known stand on women’s reservation, the Sudarsana Natchiappan-led parliamentary committee seems to be headed for a deadlock.

With the Lok Sabha elections round the corner and the government at the Centre not keen on taking up a politically contentious issue that may ruffle feathers within the United Progressive Alliance and its supporters, no one on the committee expects that the panel will come up with a unanimous proposal.

Committee member Najma Heptulla (BJP) told The Hindu that her party had given in writing to the panel that it stood by the original Bill providing for 33 per cent reservation. The Left parties too seem inclined to back the original proposal, that is being opposed by the Samajwadi Party, the Rashtriya Janata Dal, the Janata Dal(United) and the Pattali Makkal Katchi.

The Congress, while supporting the original Bill it introduced in the Rajya Sabha, seems to have adopted a flexible approach, signalling it is “willing to go with the consensus that may evolve among the parties, represented on the committee, on lowering the number of seats and reservation within reservation [for the Other Backward Classes] …” In other words, it is willing to support a compromise formula.

One proposal by a member is that as an “interim measure,” only for the next Lok Sabha election, the Representation of the People Act should be amended to make it mandatory for all parties to give one-third of all party ticket to women candidates. It was a proposal first mooted by the Election Commission.

At a meeting of the committee on Tuesday, the issue was not discussed at length. It seems the only matter that came up was the leak to the press of information on the committee’s working. The next meeting has been scheduled for October 21.

Speaking on behalf of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), Brinda Karat, also a member of the parliamentary panel, said the committee should keep its discussion “within the framework of the Bill.” She said the Congress-led regime was a “minority government which does not have the political will to push through anything that will tear apart its political allies.” Although she did not mention names, her reference was clearly to the “new friend” of the Congress, the Samajwadi Party that is opposed to the Bill.

Ms. Karat said an effort had been made to bring in the larger question of reservation for the backward classes in general, that goes well beyond the women’s reservation issue. “Not a single political party has demanded reservation in Parliament for the Other Backward Classes. The demand has been limited to a quota for women OBCs within the overall women’s reservation.”

She, therefore, felt that the earlier proposal with reference to Article 243 D of the Constitution was inappropriate for, that Article was only for local bodies and panchayats. First of all, no State was competent to deal with reservation for parliamentary seats, and this discussion would take the focus away from women’s reservation and open up the issue of an overall quota for the OBCs which no party was demanding.

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