womens reservation bill

Two men let us down very badly last week. The first was Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. He led us to believe, over the past two months, that he was determined to pass the Women’s Reservation Bill in the Budget Session of Parliament. Our hearts were lifted when we were told, after the last all-party meeting, that Mulayam Singh Yadav, the leader of the Samajwadi Party, would be given one month — and no more — to come up with a new consensus formula, failing which the Bill would be passed. No one had any illusions about Mr Yadav’s capacity to forge such a consensus, because one of the biggest obstacles to any consensus was his own party and, perhaps, himself.
The Women’s Reservation Bill, in its present form, is a simple and uncomplicated Bill. It reserves 33 per cent of the seats in Parliament and the state legislatures for women. A similar Bill amending the Constitution to reserve seats for women in panchayats and municipal bodies was passed into law almost 12 years ago...