New Delhi, March 9: History was created when the Women’s Reservation Bill, which seeks to set aside 33 per cent of seats in the Lok Sabha and state legislatures, was passed in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday.
Fourteen years after the first attempt and repeated opposition, the 108th Constitution amendment bill was adopted with a majority with 186 members voting in favour and one against after two days of bitter hostility.
While UPA ally Trinamul Congress, with two members, kept away from voting, the 15-member BSP, opposing the bill in its present form, staged a walkout. In the 245-member House, with an effective strength of 233, the bill required the backing of at least 155 members.
It was a victory for the UPA chairperson and Congress chief, Mrs Sonia Gandhi who, despite stiff and unrelenting opposition from Mr Lalu Prasad Yadav and Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav, masterminded the passage of the bill.
A justifiably overjoyed Mrs Gandhi said the women’s quota Bill was a dream of Rajiv Gandhi.
“We have been waiting for years — because you know that it was my husband Rajiv Gandhi’s vision. And Panchayati Raj was in fact going to be the beginning. So I am really happy, of course, for my party but also for all the women of the country.”
She said the government had taken a huge risk in taking up the bill, but “We have taken such risks before.”
“Politics is always full of risks. There will be impact on one side or the other but the larger picture of women empowerment has to be kept in mind.”
Ms Gandhi took a potshot at the SP and the RJD for their opposition to the bill, saying: “Who is preventing you from giving tickets to Muslims, OBCs within the reserved 33 per cent seats?”
She said she was not sure whether the Bill would be brought before the Lok Sabha during the current session of Parliament.
She appeared confident of the stability of the government and wished the UPA’s “former partners” were with the government for passing the legislation.
“Of course we understand their compulsion, their problems. I hope they will understand and they will look at the larger picture. Why can’t women after all be in power,” she said,
Tuesday’s voting exposed the split in the JD(U).
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