Over six decades after Independence, just 12 pc women in Parliament!

Over six decades after Independence, just 12 pc women in Parliament!

Reporters Name | CAMIL PARKHE | Monday, 7 March 2016 AT 09:54 PM IST

    

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Camil Parkhe, Parliament, women, women's quota, Reservation, Maharashtra

Women power: PM Narendra Modi greets delegates after the valedictory session of the National Conference of Women Legislators

One experiences a rare kind of bonhomie when women Members of Parliament belonging to various political parties come together. This was noticed when these women members came together last week as a part of the national conference of women legislators. And as has been the case with all other such meets in the past, this convention too has once again brought the issue of women’s quota in Parliament to the fore. President Pranab Mukherjee and Vice-President Hamid Ansari have stressed on the need for all political parties to arrive at a consensus to pass the long pending Bill on Women’s Reservation for Parliament and state legislature seats.
Incidentally, Maharashtra was one of the first states in the country in early 1990s to implement the provision of 33% seats for women in local self-government bodies. This revolutionary provision was implemented when Sharad Pawar was the State chief minister. The first elections for civic bodies with the 33% quota for women were held in Kolhapur Municipal Corporation. I remember camping in Kolhapur along with representatives of various dailies to cover this one of the first such elections in the country. There were many apprehensions whether this experiment will ever be successful in achieving its avowed aim of politically empowering women or whether the men in the families will continue to rule by proxy despite the rule on women’s quota.
Three decades have passed since 33% quota for women in local self-government bodies came into the force. A few years ago, the women’s quota was enhanced to 50%, providing representation to a large number of women in decision making at the local civic bodies. India perhaps may be the first country in the world to reserve 50 per cent seats for women in local self-government bodies. However even six decades after Independence, the percentage of women in Parliament has remained less than 12%. Comparatively, Pakistan and Bangladesh have higher representation in their national assemblies.
Unfortunately the issue of providing quota for women in Parliament and state assemblies has been pending in the Lok Sabha for many years although the same Bill has already been passed in the Rajya Sabha. In the previous House, the issue of the women’s quota in its given form was mainly opposed by the Socialist leaders namely Mulayam Singh Yadav, and others while both the UPA government and the then main opposition party BJP both competed with each other in paying lip sympathy for the woman’s quota.
Now with the change of guard at the Centre, the roles in the Lok Sabha have been reversed. This is also for the first time in three decades that the ruling party at the Centre enjoys a simple majority. Surprisingly there has been a deafening silence on the issue of providing for women’s quota in Parliament and state assemblies since the change of power at the Centre. Neither the ruling NDA coalition nor the Opposition parties have ever raised this issue either in the House or outside.
President Pranab Mukherjee and Vice-President Hamid Ansari have now raised the issue of women’s quota. The ongoing debate on JNU, nationalism, sedition and intolerance in the country is likely to  continue for a longer period. The ruling and opposition parties will earn the kudos of women, the country’s nearly half population, if they arrive at a consensus to provide some percentage of reservation to women in Parliament and state legislatures.
The political parties have already wasted many years on this issue. Now they need to muster the political will and work to ensure that the next general elections will be held to have an adequate number of women lawmakers in both Houses of Parliament.

All minorities must be taken along

All minorities must be taken along

Reporters Name | CAMIL PARKHE | Saturday, 5 March 2016 AT 07:42 PM IST

    

Camil Parkhe, Narendra Modi-led BJP, Rajiv Gandhi, Congress, minority representative, Maharashtra,BJP-Shiv Sena alliance

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Narendra Modi-led BJP came to power in May 2014 and the party won the distinction of forming the government on its own for the first time after a long gap of 30 years. It was Rajiv Gandhi of the Congress who had won a two-third majority in Lok Sabha in 1984 and formed the government.

The present BJP government also has a dubious distinction. Since Independence, it is the first ruling party at the Centre which does not have a single Muslim member among its 282 Lok Sabha members! That is why the party was forced to induct the party’s
Muslim Rajya Sabha members, Najma Heptullah and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi into the Union ministry to make it as all inclusive. This was indeed laudatory on the part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

In Maharashtra, the ruling BJP-Shiv Sena alliance has however not shown this political maturity. For the first time since Maharashtra came into existence in 1960, there is no minority representative in the state ministry. In the past when the Shiv Sena-BJP government came to power in 1995, Sabir Shaikh, an MLA from Junnar, was inducted as Cabinet minister. But this time, neither the BJP nor the Shiv Sena found it necessary to induct any minority leader into the State ministry. The State ruling group has once again shown its scant respect for the country’s secular principles when it has excluded any member of the minority community in the State ministry. In keeping with this policy, now the government has also excluded any members of the Muslim community from the list of veteran national leaders, personalities whose birth and death anniversaries are to be commemorated by the government organisations and academic institutions. Incidentally, the Muslims comprise 10-12 per cent of the State population.

The BJP came to power when its Prime Ministerial candidate made good governance and development as his main election plank. To be fair, it must be noted that even after assuming power as the prime minister, Modi has in his various speeches and actions has adhered to these promises. In Maharashtra, however the BJP has initiated many moves creating insecurity in the minds of the minority communities. In fact, after coming to power, both the BJP and Shiv Sena should have made endeavours to win confidence of all sections of society in order to broaden their vote bank and thus consolidate their power to win long-term political benefits.

It has been proved that there are limitations on a party winning even a simple majority in Lok Sabha on the Hindutva plank and therefore an all-inclusive agenda, appealing to cross-sections of the electorate is needed for any political party to come to power at the Centre. As Hindutva organisations, BJP and Shiv Sena may have their own agenda toward the minorities but as the ruling group and the governing agency, they need to follow the Raj Dharma and work in the interests of all sections of the state’s population.

Instead of targeting the minorities, both parties in the ruling group need to woo the minorities into their own respective political camps. That will be a politically mature move and will pay them rich political dividends in the long term.