Nagaland yesterday expressed strong resentment over the proposed reservation of seats for women in the Lok Sabha and the state legislatures, a bill for which has been introduced in Parliament.
Expressing strong apprehension of the tribal state, the Nagaland government, in a memorandum to Prime Minister I K Gujral, said that our apprehension is not so much against empowerment of women but the impact it will have on our tribal way of life.
Nagaland Chief Minister S C Jamir, who welcomed Gujral at a civic reception, suggested that chief ministers of all tribal states be called for a meeting to express their views.
He said that proposed legislation would disrupt our sound cohesion.
If the Centre wanted to go ahead with the legislation, we will want special consideration for the tribal states, he said.
In its memorandum, the Nagaland government said the Assembly constituencies delineated directly on tribal parameters and such enforced reservations were likely to cause serious dislocations of tribal and cultural way of living in the state.
The state suggested that instead of reservation of Assembly seats and the imposition of such dramatic changes, the legislature could be made bi-cameral with reservation of seats for women in the upper house.
We feel that for tribal areas such changes should be done slowly and we once again bring it to your notice to kindly give a special thought to tribal states like Nagaland, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya.
We are apprehensive that such a sudden imposition may have adverse reaction and add to the confusion that is already prevalent in most of the tribal states of the north east.
