Women's Reservation Bill: The thundering trio who stole the show

NEW DELHI: The women’s reservation bill got nearly passed without a discussion in Rajya Sabha on Tuesday but finally when order was restored and the debate began, the speeches of three leaders — Arun Jaitley, Brinda Karat and Satish Chandra Mishra — stood out.

Unfortunately, speakers from the treasury bench had nothing more to say than sing paens for UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and PM Manmohan Singh.

Jaitley, who initiated the debate, saying the House is becoming an instrument in supporting one of the most progressive laws, made a forceful argument in favour of 33% reservation for women in legislative bodies and said without the historic legislation the situation of women will not change for the next 63 years.

The Leader of Opposition took on all the counter-arguments against the reservation one by one and said it is a myth that reservations create a privileged society. He said the Constitution guarantees equal rights to all but circumstances have led to such a situation that 50% of population has only 10% representation in Lok Sabha.

Jaitley said a country like Rwanda has the highest representation of women in Parliament and that even Afghanistan and Pakistan were ahead of India. He said after 63 years women representation has hovered between 7% to 11%. Jaitley also pointed out that Indian laws, especially personal laws, are unequal blaming it on less representation of women in House.

Brinda Karat (CPM) thanked the democratic minded men for supporting the bill and said finally reservation for women has changed from rhetoric to a guarantee. She also highlighted that leaders of UP and Bihar might have been at the forefront against the bill demanding reservation for SC/ST/OBC, but 65% to 70% of women MLAs come from these groups.

BSP’s Satish Chandra Mishra, while supporting the legislation, pitched for 50% reservation for women and said there are flaws in the bill as it excluded socially and educationally backward women. He said BSP wanted a fresh quota for women over and above the SC/ST quota which should not be disturbed.

He demanded that the bill be re-introduced after necessary changes. With none of BSP’s demand met, he walked out along with party MPs before the vote.