With an eye to push the contentious Women’s Reservation Bill during the second phase of the Budget session of the Lok Sabha, the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government will meet leaders of various parties on Monday to ensure a smooth passage of the Bill in the Lower House.
The Bill, aiming to provide one-third reservation for women candidates in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies, was passed in the Rajya Sabha in March amid unprecedented use of House Marshals to throw out disrupting MPs.
Monday’s meeting has been convened by Union Finance Minister and the UPA’s main firefighter — Pranab Mukherjee. According to top sources in the government, the UPA management is unlikely to accept the proposal of ‘quota within the quota’, or providing separate quota for minorities or economically-backward sections. Janata Dal-United (JD-U) President Sharad Yadav was initially demanding separate quota for Other Backward Classes (OBCs). But with JD-U now a divided house and the faction led by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar already supporting the Bill unconditionally, the government will not need to pay heed to Sharad Yadav’s demands on quota within quota.
But the Opposition parties are not ruling out the possibility of the government reducing the quota from the present 33 per cent. Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav (with 21 MPs in the Lok Sabha) has already indicated that he might be cooperating with the government to pass the Bill if the reservation level was low.
Some other opponents of the Bill have also indicated that while the current form of the Bill is unacceptable they may be open for discussion if the government dilutes the percentage of reservation or leave the quota for decision by parties. “We are in favour of women’s reservation but we want only 20 per cent reservation and that too it should be left to the party,” Mulayam Singh Yadav has said.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has remarked as “too premature” the possibility of any dilution in the Women’s Reservation Bill in the wake of stiff opposition from the Yadav trio. Singh also said, “We will discuss with political parties how best to proceed. We are committed to discussing the issue”.