WOMEN RESERVATION BILL: TIME IS RIPE

H D Deve Gowda-led United Front government, in1996, first introduced the legislation to reserve 33.3 percent seats in Parliament and state legislatures for women. Though it has been introduced in Parliament several times since then, the Bill could not be passed because of lack of political consensus. The idea of making a legal provision for reserving seats for women in Parliament and the State Assemblies first came up during Rajiv Gandhi's tenure as Prime Minister.

The time is now very ripe to get it passed in both the houses. One could not have asked for a better time. The president of the largest democracy in the world is a woman. The president of the national political party with a history of 125 plus years and which is the major ruling partner of UPA -2 is a woman. The leader of opposition in the LS and the speaker of LS are women. The chief minister of the most populous state is a woman. Woman heads the Trinamool Congress, major partner of UPA 2. The all-powerful general secretary who is in charge in AIDMK is a woman. There is woman Politburo member of CPM, who is also a member of Rajya Sabha. We have a woman chief minister in New Delhi. The opposition to the bill came from Yadav trio and Paswan. The strength and bargaining power of this group has come down substantially after the 2009 LS election. There is no threat to UPA government from this group. The UPA -2 should get the bill passed immediately in both the houses and send it the president for doing the needful.