The Hindu Business Line : Parliament's monsoon meeting

The monsoon session of Parliament has just ended, and happily quite some business was done this time unlike earlier sittings, which were stalled by an acrimonious opposition. But a major disappointment of this session was that yet again the Women's Reservation Bill was not introduced. Terming the reasons trotted out quite fantastic, Rasheeda Bhagat says the issue has become too politicised.

The Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Mr Gulam Nabi Azad, celebrates a smooth Monsoon Session at a tug-of-war session with team members Naveen Jindal, Jagdesh Tytler and Oscar Fernandes against media persons covering Parliament. — Anu Pushkarna

ONE MORE Parliamentary session has ended, with the sine die adjournment of the monsoon meeting. In more ways than one this session was different from the last few that the BJP, smarting from the stunning defeat of its National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in the last Lok Sabha elections, just did not allow to function. But some progress was made in this session and apparently both the Lok Sabha Speaker, Mr Somnath Chatterjee, and the Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Mr Ghulam Nabi Azad, were quite thrilled that 16 Bills were pushed through Parliament, and 23 were introduced — 14 in the Lok Sabha and 23 in the Rajya Sabha.

Rewarding for speakers

For Mr Chatterjee, who in his maiden stint as Speaker has been continuously frustrated with the Opposition managing to stall the proceedings over the issue of a tainted minister in the Manmohan Singh Government, this session was a "rewarding" one, in that at least he got to do his job.

Mr Azad gushed over the defeat of the two adjournment motions and pointed out how this had "busted the myth that the supporting parties of the United Progressive Alliance would not stand with it" and expressed the confidence that the UPA Government would last its full five year term.

But, for the women of India keenly watching if our political masters would finally introduce the Women's Reservation Bill, it was a feeling of déjà vu.

The Prime Minister at least indicated that he was sincere on the issue by consulting opponents of the Bill such as the Samajwadi Party chief, Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav, the Rashtriya Janata Dal boss, Mr Lalu Prasad, and others. But at the end of the day, the session passed without the Bill being introduced.

Worse, the Parliamentary Affairs Minister would not even commit to introducing the Bill in the next session, saying: "We do not want violent scenes in the House." To say the least this sounds farcical. His Government is prepared to see through stormy sessions such as the ones that rocked the two Houses over the issue of the Finance Minister, Mr P. Chidambaram's wife, Nalini, being appointed a special counsel by the Central Board of Direct Taxes to take up income-tax cases. No amount of arguments justifying her right as an independent professional competent to take up legal briefs can justify her appearance for the CBDT. For Mr Chidambaram to say that he was not aware of the whole issue or else he would have nipped it in the bud does not excuse the lapse.

Caesar's wife has to be above suspicion and there are no two ways of looking at this time-tested yardstick for measuring credentials of public persons.

Our law-makers will deal with "violent scenes" on the issue of tainted ministers — the NDA too had its share of pandemonium in Parliament when its Defence Minister, Mr George Fernandes, was put in the dock by the Opposition, including the Congress(I) over the Tehelka sting operation — or such imbroglios as the one Mr Chidambaram finds himself in now. But when it comes to the Women's Reservation Bill, all kinds of excuses, not to forget fantabulous suggestions, are trotted out.

How else does one describe the suggestion that as our male netas will not even think of vacating their seats for women, the only way of increasing women's representation in our Legislature could be by increasing the total number of seats by 33 per cent? Or, that within the women's quota, we should have another one for those belonging to the Scheduled Castes, Tribes, Other Backward Classes and Muslims.

Banner of social justice

In the consultative meeting, the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, and the UPA Chairperson, Ms Sonia Gandhi, had with the allies and those supporting the Government from outside, once again the banner of `social justice' was raised by the self-appointed messiahs of the downtrodden and the backward classes. Leaders such as Mr Lalu Prasad, Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav and the Bahujan Samaj Party chief, Ms Mayawati, threw a spanner in the works by demanding a quota for all these sections within the women's Bill.

While Mr Lalu Prasad wanted only 10-15 per cent reservation, Mr Mulayam Singh ruled out the possibility of rotating Lok Sabha seats, arguing that this would "hamper development work as members may not take interest in their constituencies." Is anybody impressed?

The Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, Ms Jayalalithaa, had her own say on how much she favoured women's political empowerment. At a press conference in Chennai, she suggested that 33 per cent representation should be given to women by constituting additional seats with dual membership — one as a "general member" and the other a woman member.

One wishes she had taken a more strident posture on women's reservation in our Legislature when she had more MPs in Parliament; of courseshe has 12 Rajya Sabha MPs.

But in all fairness, the record of the AIADMK under her leadership on this front, at least in the State Assembly, is commendable.

Whenever it has done well in the elections, the AIADMK has returned a fair number of women to the Tamil Nadu Legislature. In the 2001 Tamil Nadu Assembly election, the AIADMK fielded 19 women and the fact that all of them won proves that they were not dummy, but winning, candidates. With one more woman making it in a subsequent by-election, the AIADMK has 20 women MLAs in a House of 234. Not a bad record.

In fact, the AIADMK-led group — then known as the `secular front' as the DMK was with the BJP — had fielded 24 women and all won. While 19 belonged to the AIADMK, two were from the Congress (I), two from the PMK and one from the CPI(M).

Another interesting statistic is that when the AIADMK, led by Ms Jayalalithaa, won in 1991, all the 26 women it had fielded were elected. In the 1996 election her party failed to return a single woman to the House.

The 10-per cent syndrome

As for the present, or the 14th, Lok Sabha, it has 45 women members, which is less than 10 per cent in a House of 543. But this is close enough to the one-tenth mark for the shrewd Lalu Prasad to say magnanimously that his party favoured a reservation of 10 per cent for women. If within that figure he manages to push through a further quota, he will get one more `social justice' feather to brag about.

The opposition to women's reservation by those who argue that more number of women will not automatically mean greater gender justice, because the reserved seats will ultimately be cornered by the relatives of powerful male politicians, does not hold water. A Jayalalithaa may have come into politics thanks to her mentor MGR, but today she is a politician who can stand up to the best in political strategising and winning elections.

Whether a Jayalalithaa, an Indira Gandhi or even a Sonia Gandhi — or Benazir Bhutto and Chandrika Kumaratunga in our neighbourhood — these women have proved that they are astute enough to convert a stepping-stone into an opportunity. At least reservation for women will allow the discovery of more such women.

Of course more women in politics does not automatically mean a society in which women are empowered. There is no denying that whether in the political or corporate world, once women manage to break the glass ceiling, more often than not the power equation takes over and the gender question is pushed to the back seat. Though sad, this is true. But this does not mean that one half of our population should not be given its due, whether in politics or in India Inc.

Response may be sent to rasheeda@thehindu.co.in

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