Adopt clear stand on Women' Bill, parties told

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, MARCH 7. The BJP president, Mr. Bangaru Laxman, said today that while there could be no compromise on the basic principle of quota for women, its extent could be open to review to facilitate the passage of the Women's Reservation Bill.

Addressing a symposium on the ``Role of women in the current political scenario,'' organised by the MARG Foundation, Mr. Laxman said that privately many political parties were speaking of reducing the percentage of reservation. But they would not say this in public. This aspect might come up for consideration in the Government's bid to arrive at a national consensus, he indicated.

As for the demand for reservation for women from different castes, the BJP president said this could be addressed later. ``A clause can be put in to review the reservation policy a decade later to see whether women from all sections of society have found representation in the country's political spectrum.''

Defending the Government's efforts to evolve a consensus, Mr. Laxman said ``this is an amendment with great ramifications and forcing it through without a consensus would not be the correct thing to do''.

``Political parties must give up their doublespeak and adopt a clear stance on the Bill''.

On the Election Commission's suggestion that parties reserve seats for women, he said this would not be possible without a law. ``And, even for this, there is no consensus among political parties yet.'' Some constituents of the National Democratic Alliance - including the Janata Dal (U), the Samata Party and the Shiv Sena - had reservations about the current Bill, he said.

Earlier, the former Union Law Minister, Mr. Ram Jethmalani - who tabled the Bill in Parliament - said with the Parliament and political parties being totally male-dominated, women were up against ``terrible odds''. On the view that no political party was interested in seeing the Bill through, he said: ``What you see is nothing but pretense, lip-service and compulsion of election manifestos.''

Referring to the stalling tactics adopted in the House every time the Bill came up for discussion, Mr. Jethmalani urged women Parliamentarians to get a commitment from the Speaker of the Lok Sabha and the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha to take disciplinary action against those disrupting the proceedings.

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Section  : National
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