The Hindu : Women MPs corner PM

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, May 09, 2003

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National

Women MPs corner PM

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI MAY 8. The Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, today found himself cornered in the lobby by women Rajya Sabha MPs from across the political spectrum over the fate of the Women's Reservation Bill soon after he made his exit from the House at the end of question hour.

Sarla Maheshwari (CPI-M), who made vain attempts to get a response in the House from Mr. Vajpayee, told The Hindu later that she along with other MPs, including Ambika Soni (Cong.), sought to know why the bill could not be passed when the Government had the support of about three-fourths of the MPs. She said the CPI(M) had pledged its support in writing as well.

When the MPs protested that the bill had been given a burial, Mr. Vajpayee said the legislation would take a `punarjanma (rebirth)'.

The Speaker, Manohar Joshi, is understood to have called an all-party meeting here on June 16 to discuss the Bill.

Later, the BJP spokesperson, V.K.Malhotra, described the incident as "regrettable" and "unfortunate" pointing out that it was wrong to point the accusing finger at the Prime Minister or the Speaker for the Lok Sabha's failure to pass the bill.

"The Prime Minister was more than sincere and the Speaker was more than fair," Mr. Malhotra said, but "the only way" it could have been passed was by expelling from the House all those MPs who were not only opposing the bill vociferously but were bent upon not allowing it to be passed. So far, there had been no precedent for this.

He hinted that the "next time" it would be brought up in a different form for it was perhaps possible to have unanimity on making it mandatory for the parties to nominate women candidates against a certain percentage of the total seats contested by them with the constituencies in a State as the unit.

His view was that women MPs and other women activists must think about this seriously. If representation of women cannot be increased through direct reservation, can it be done through this other method?

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