Giving women an increased share in legislatures may be a good idea but it would have been better had the Manmohan Singh ministry applied a little more thought before placing the bill in Parliament.
The Women's Reservation Bill, which provides for 33 per cent quota for women, will be considered by the Cabinet on Monday night and is expected to be introduced in the Rajya Sabha, sources said in Delhi. The bill is expected to be referred to the Standing Committee soon after being tabled in the Upper House, they said.
Speaking in the House on Tuesday, he stressed that two-third of the MPs and MLAs will lose interest in nursing and serving their constituencies as they stand no chance of second term and that include all women representatives.
The special session saw the women's reservation bill being passed by both Houses.
The government has given the Yadavs opposing the Women's Reservation Bill a face saver by which they can withdraw their agitation in the Lok Sabha and allow the House to function, and in return, the government has promised them nothing more than a dialogue and time to discuss the bill with Union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, not even promising them an all party meeting.
Amid demands for getting the long-pending Women's Reservation Bill passed, the government on Wednesday said it is ready to extend the last session of the 15th Lok Sabha if the House agreed.
The Central government will hold another all-party meeting this week to arrive at a consensus on the Women's Reservation Bill in Lok Sabha, Union minister V Narayanasamy said on Tuesday.
Gandhi has written the letter, seeking passage of a resolution urging the central government to pass the bill, to the chief ministers of those states where the Congress is in power.
Vice President Hamid Ansari's wife Salma says she has a "problem" with the Women's Reservation Bill and feels that it will not be of much help unless awareness is created among women at the grassroot level.
There is apprehension in the Congress about the passage of the Women's Reservation Bill in the Lok Sabha if the Bharatiya Janata Party persists with its demand that Marshals should not be used for physically removing protesting members from the House.
Faced with strident opposition from the Samajwadi Party and the Rashtriya Janata Dal over the Women's Reservation Bill, the government on Monday said it does not want to 'bulldoze' the Constitutional amendment and would favour a 'healthy debate' before going ahead with it. After a day of high drama in the Rajya Sabha, where the bill was moved for consideration, Law Minister Veerappa Moily slammed the Opposition parties for the way they protested against it.
So keen is Congress President Sonia Gandhi to have the women's reservation bill passed in the Rajya Sabha that she told women MPs of her party who met her during on Thursday that "even if they have to snatch papers and tear them" they must do so to ensure that the bill is passed in the upper house of Parliament.
Political pundits, sociologists, political scientists, feminists and historians and almost everybody has said that if the bill becomes an act then it will be the biggest socio-political news since independence. This will have the impact bigger than the Mandal Commission that gave reservation to lower castes and it will go deeper than the Ayodhya movement that attempted to ignite Hindu identity cutting across caste barriers.
Several Muslim organisations have disfavoured the women's reservation bill in its present form and demanded that the government take up the measure only if it provides for a quota within quota to women belonging to Muslim, Dalit and Other Backward Class communities.
The 71-MP strong ruling Congress is determined to push ahead with the Constitution amendment bill on Monday in the Rajya Sabha, which has an effective strength of 233, coinciding with the International Women's Day.
Unfazed by Monday's developments in the Rajya Sabha, President Pratibha Patil said that it will be 'graceful' if the Women's Reservation Bill is passed after consultation 'as far as possible.'
The standoff over Women's Reservation Bill ended on Thursday with the government announcing that the proposed legislation would be brought in the Lok Sabha only after consultations with all sections.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's wife Gursharan Kaur wants the women reservation bill passed "to give the Indian women equal opportunities".
Under attack for his controversial comment on the Women's Reservation Bill, Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav on Thursday justified his remark, that a separate quota for women would help only those belonging to elite families, whom 'youths would whistle at'.At a meeting of party workers at the SP headquarters in Lucknow, Yadav asserted that his statement was not a slip of tongue but was made after evaluating all aspects, to initiate a debate on the issue.
An assurance to this effect was given by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to a delegation of Women PowerConnect, which met him in New Delhi recently.
The Congress said on Wednesday that Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad did not give any dissent note to the Women's Reservation Bill despite being a member of the Parliamentary Committee concerned, which went into the measure.
With the Congress-led government taking most of the credit for the passage of the Women's Reservation Bill in Rajya Sabha, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday patted its own back for the success and criticised the United Progressive Alliance for the forcible eviction of protesting Members of Parliament from the House. Despite being in a minority in the Upper House, the Congress-led government and especially party chief Sonia Gandhi earned kudos for passage of the Bill.
What some of our leaders were up to on Wednesday, September 20, 2023.
CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury on Monday said the Left parties are in favour of the much-delayed Women's Reservation Bill and maintained that it should be introduced in Parliament in its original form. He said parties like RJD and SP are opposed to the bill, as they have certain issues related to it. However, he said, these could be discussed in Parliament through amendments also.
Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh will meet Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav, Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad and Janata Dal-United leader Sharad Yadav on Tuesday morning over the Women's Reservation Bill.
Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday appealed to the opposition for the unanimous passage of the women's reservation bill and said shortcomings, if any, can be rectified at a later date.
The United Progressive Alliance government will move the Women's Reservation Bill in the Lok Sabha in the coming session, Union Minister for Law and Justice M Veerappa Moily said on Monday. The Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party and other parties have assured their "unconditional" support to the bill, which has prompted the government to introduce it for consideration and passing in Lok Sabha, Moily told media-persons in Karnataka.
The Trinmool Congress, fuming over the manner in which the Women's Reservation Bill was passed in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday, has claimed that the Congress 'cheated' their leader Mamata Banerjee over the issue."Till the last moment, we were kept in the dark. Congress leaders didn't show us their cards till the last moment. This is not the way to treat allies," said Minister of State for Health Dinesh Trivedi.
A cornered government faced flak from the BJP which today sought to make political capital out of its failure to get Women's Reservation Bill passed in the Rajya Sabha by accusing it of developing a cold feet after SP and RJD threatened to withdraw support. Both BJP and CPI(M) said the government should have convened an all-party meeting on the issue earlier.
Congress Member of Parliament from Bihar Mohd Asraul Haque created a flutter in party circles on Thursday by demanding that the interests of "all sections of society" should be taken into account before passing the Women's Reservation Bill in the Lok Sabha.
Earlier in the day while addressing the media ahead of the session, PM Modi had said that this Parliament session may be of short duration but is big on occasion, and is of 'historic decisions'.
Rajya Sabha witnessed heated exchanges between the treasury and opposition benches after Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge made remarks on the manner in which political parties select women candidates from weaker sections and raised the issue of 'delayed' GST payments to non-Bharatiya Janata Party ruled states.
"Though we welcome the amendments to Succession Act, passing of Domestic Violence Act, women quota in NREG Act and the announcement of extension of maternity leave to six months, we are critical of the failure of the UPA government to introduce the bill on 33 per cent reservations of seats to women in Parliament and state assemblies," the resolution, adopted on the penultimate day of the ongoing 20th Congress of the CPI, noted.
Shiv Sena, an ally of the National Democratic Alliance which voted for the Women's Reservation Bill in Rajya Sabha, said on Wednesday, that it will oppose it if marshals were called in and force was used to pass the measure in Lok Sabha.
Consensus eluded the all-party meeting held in New Delhi on Monday to break the logjam over the Women's Reservation Bill, with the Yadav trio sticking to their demand for quota within quota and United Progressive Alliance ally Trinamool Congress supporting their stance. After two hours of intense deliberations, it was decided that more discussions would be held on the issue, triggering doubts about whether the bill could be introduced in Lok Sabha in the budget session.
The government said on Tuesday that it would hold a discussion on the Women's Reservation Bill in the Rajya Sabha and not bulldoze the passage of the evolutionary measure involving amendment of the Constitution.
Consensus continued to elude the Women's Reservation Bill which is unlikely to see the light of the day during the current session of Parliament.
The Samajwadi Party and the Rashtriya Janata Dal on Monday said they would oppose the Women's Reservation Bill in its present form at an all-party meeting convened by the government and stick to their demand for separate quotas for women from the minority community, scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and other backward classes. the meeting has been convened by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who is Leader of Lok Sabha, to find a way out of the impasse on the bill.
Yet another effort to reach a consensus on the Women's Reservation Bill failed to make any progress with two major political parties staying away from an all-party meeting here today and others opposed to the measure sticking to their guns.
'Other sectors that manage the savings pools of Indians are giving tough competition to life insurance companies.'
© 2026 Rediff.com - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances