Zeenews Bureau
New Delhi: Despite vociferous opposition, the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday passed the historic Women’s Reservation Bill that reserves 33 per cent of legislative seats in the Lok Sabha and state Assemblies.
The 13-year perilous political struggle to give women adequate representation ended with the Rajya Sabha finally debating the contentious issue and then voting 186-1 on the Constitution (One Hundred and Eighth Amendment) Bill, 2008 amid acrimony, political divides and ugly scenes of dissent. In the 245-member House with an effective strength of
233, the bill required the backing of at least 155 members.
Only the last step remains - of the Lok Sabha endorsing it. With the numbers stacked in favour of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government in the lower house, this should hopefully be a formality, said activists and leaders, who had fought long and hard to see the day.
The reserved seats would be allotted by rotation to different constituencies and would be valid for 15 years after the commencement of the Amendment Act. The bill seeks to reserve for women 181 of the 543
seats in the Lok Sabha and 1,370 out of a total of 4,109
seats in the 28 State Assemblies.
High drama surrounded the passage
of the historic Women's Reservation Bill with the process
beginning with unprecedented unruly scenes in the Rajya Sabha
and culminating with the suspension and forcible eviction of
the disruptive members.
The histrionics witnessed in the House yesterday when the
bill was moved for consideration continued today with the
opponents of the proposed legislation disrupting the
proceedings.
However, acting tough, the government moved a motion for
suspension of seven members -- four from SP, one each from RJD
and LJP and an unattached member.
They defied the action and squatted on the floor of the
House for over three hours after their suspension from the
Rajya Sabha around noon.
Rest of the members of SP and RJD walked out of the House
in protest against suspension of their colleagues.
At one point of time when the suspended members along with
their party colleagues refused to budge and indicated that
they would not allow discussion, the Chairman called for
voting on the bill without any debate.
However, the move was vociferously resisted by BJP and
Left parties, which had committed their support for the bill
but insisted on discussion on the important Constitutional
amendment.
This led to an unusual development as the Chairman called
for debate even after the voice vote was taken.
As the Rajya Sabha re-convened at 3 PM after three
adjournments and Chairman Hamid Ansari took up the bill for
discussion, the suspended members began their protests by
shouting slogans. They were joined other RJD and SP members.
12 member BSP pulled out of voting after V Moily replied to the discussion. The Trinamool Congress, who also abstained, has two MPs in the Rajya Sabha- Minister of State for Shipping Mukul Roy and Swapan Sadhan Bose.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's desk failed during voting on the Women's Reservation Bill and he had to do so manually.
The votes recorded are displayed on two panels on either side of the chairman's podium and its green or red lights indicate how the member has voted.
When the lights remained off after Manmohan Singh recorded his vote, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal immediately rushed up with a slip of paper to enable the prime minister to cast his vote manually.
At this point, women constitute nine percent of the Lok Sabha, 10 percent of the Rajya Sabha and only seven percent of state legislative assemblies.
Correcting the anomaly, however, saw the blurring of many political lines and the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government losing some of its political edge.
The RJD and the SP announced the withdrawal of their support to the government and the ally Trinamool Congress abstained from the vote. Within the Janata Dal-United (JD-U) divisions appeared with Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for the move but its other big leader Sharad Yadav bitterly opposed to it.
But the Congress battled the hurdles. It was a triumph for Congress president Sonia Gandhi who was determined that it would go through. In the Lok Sabha, the task would be easier with the Congress having a strength of 208, the largest constituent of the UPA's 259 members.
The SP's 22 seats and the RJD's four would not make a difference, a party leader had said. And indeed it didn’t.
This was an issue that went beyond politics, a reflection of the emerging women power in a rapidly modernising India.
BJP offers unequivocal support .
Senior BJP politician and Leader of Opposition Arun Jaitley then opened the debate by retreating his party’s support to the bill.
“I would like to be a party to a great history in the making. Let me say on the behalf of my party that we unequivocally support the Women’s Reservation Bill,” Jaitley said.
However, he condemned the disruptions and unruly scenes created by the opposing MPs.
“We offer our full support to the Bill but we certainly condemn the tactics behind it. The politics of ideas must be translated into representation. It is indeed a great honour to ring in this revolution, “Jaitley said.
He was followed by senior Congress leader Jayanti Natrajan and CPM’s Brinda Karat and BSP leader SC Mishra.
Hailing the UPA government, Congress MP Jayanthi Natarajan said, "No other party (has) had the courage to deliver the promise (of reservation of legislative seats for women) to the people of India."
Replying to the debate on the bill from Govt’s point of view, Union Law Minister Veerappa Moily
said, "The determination of seats and reservation (for women)
will be addressed by a separate law like delimitation act."
On separate quota for OBCs, minorities and SC/ST as
demanded by the SP and RJD, the minister said, "There are some
misgivings" but pointed out that there was no national census
based on caste after 1935 and the backward castes in one state
was not so in another state.
Moily said the time had come to act and act boldly.
Inequalities would be rectified, age-old biases corrected.
"Today is a historical day because all of us are paying a debt to our mothers. This is the greatest day, the necessity for such legislation is apparent," Moily told the Rajya Sabha while replying to the debate in which 27 speakers participated.
With this bill, could things finally change? A tempting thought for India's women.
Agencies’ inputs
First Published: Wednesday, March 10, 2010, 00:40