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The United Front government seems to have jettisoned all its
intentions to amend the Constitution for granting 33 per cent of
seats in the legislature for women.
In a major departure from its promise made during the last session
for passing the Bill in the forthcoming budget session, the
government had decided to lower the quantum of reservation from the
proposed 33 per cent to 15 per cent and approach political parties
for a fresh round of discussions.
The change in the government's thinking was disclosed by prime
minister H D Deve Gowda to the leader of the Opposition Atal Behari
Vajpayee when he met the former at his Safdarjung Road residence on
Monday night.
The prime minister, who explained the inability of his government
to push through the legislation in its present form to his
predecessor, said a reduction in the quantum of reservation was the
only option before his government. While Mr Gowda's own party - the
Janata Dal - is resisting every attempt to reserve seats, the
constituents of the Front have been flexing their muscles to get
the government agree to allot 33 per cent seats for women.
Mr Vajpayee, who refused to give his party's stamp of approval for
reducing the quantum of reservation, made it clear to the prime
minister that there was no question of the BJP going back on its
commitment. As a matter of fact, the parliamentary wing of the BJP
had passed a resolution during the last session of Parliament
supporting the demand for 33 per cent reservation for women in
legislatures.
"The party had taken a formal stand on the issue and we cannot
backtrack," the BJP leader is learnt to have told the prime
minister.
Interestingly, the meeting took place a day before the prime
minister described the proposal for allotting 33 per cent seats as
a revolutionary step. "The reservation for women will indeed be a
revolutionary step in the direction of gender equality and
empowerment of women," the prime minister had told the specialised
conference of Inter-Parliamentary Union here on Tuesday. The stand
of the prime minister was lauded by many as a positive step as the
conference itself was not in favour of fixing any mandatory target.
The backtracking of the government over the issue is unlikely to go
down well with the constituents of the Front, particularly the Left
parties, which want the government to pass the Bill in the coming
session itself. The government which was forced to spell out its
stand on the issue at that point of time was forced to give a
commitment in the House for passing the legislation in the budget
session.
Given this, the constituents of the Front is sure to join its
ideological rival - the BJP - to attack their government for
abandoning its commitment. The government's failure on this count
is expected to give the BJP another talking point.
Meanwhile, the BJP's parliamentary wing's executive committee today
discussed the fate of the Bill.
Although leaders like K Sharma felt that the Bill needed some
fine-tuning for resolving the issue of rotation of reserved seats,
the executive was unanimous that there should be no dilution on the
party's commitment.
However, the party is likely to deliberate over the issue at its
forthcoming meeting of its national executive at
Thiruvananthapuram. The leader belonging to the OBC section are
expected to raise their demand for allotting separate reservation
for the women belonging to the Backward groups.
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