Hindi belt politics

REGIONAL ROUNDUP

Given how it is Hindi-belt politicians "" Mulayam Singh Yadav, Lalu Prasad, Uma Bharati "" who have been opposing the Women's Reservation Bill, it is not surprising that, of the non-English language newspapers, it is primarily the Hindi ones that have reported the matter with some intensity over the week.

While Dainik Jagran had a front page story on the fact that the Bill was in trouble, it had a box item on how Uma Bharati wanted a 50 per cent reservation within the quota, for backward caste women.

Rajasthan Patrika had a good front page display on the matter along with a picture of UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi along with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the Bill's arch-opponent Mulayam Singh Yadav. It even carried an edit page article on the Bill, which asked how much reservation should be done, and for how long.

Punjab Kesari had this as its lead story, along with a similar picture of Sonia, Manmohan and Mulayam. The newspaper pointed out that this Bill has had perhaps one of the most chequered histories in Parliament.

The Bill, it appears, was first presented in Parliament in 1997 when H D Deve Gowda was the country's prime minister, but was then trashed by the Janata Dal MPs.

The women's quota Bill issue was covered in Dinamalar on three days, but not much importance was given. It was just straight reporting of the opinions expressed by different political parties and no edits or cartoons were carried.

On August 21, it was carried on one of the inside pages "" there was a news item on DMK chief Karunanidhi referring to the women's reservation in Parliament on the sidelines of releasing the English version of one of his books.

On another day, the daily carried a front page news story and a photograph showing Manmohan and Sonia talking to each other (ostensibly about the issue). The four-column story spoke about the opposition of Mulayam and Lalu in amending the Bill. A day or two later, the daily carried a news item on page two about Singh saying that he is determined to amend the Bill.

Also, there was a box item of L K Advani blaming the Central government for causing the delay in amending the Bill. On the front page, there was a photograph showing some women asleep at the meeting where the prime minister announced the amendment of the Bill.

The Telugu dailies over the last week have almost ignored the issue of the women's quota Bill. Not a single daily has carried any report or editorial on the issue.

All the dailies have been occupied with the coverage of the killing of a Congress legislator and nine others in Mahaboobnagar district by Maoists on Independence day. Eenadu carried an editorial (last month), which highlighted the lack of zeal among the political parties to come to a consensus on the Bill.