An inconvenient bill: Women's reservation

The sad theme of reservation is about to play out once again on the Indian political scene. Only this time, there is a consensus among all major political formations; frankly, this subversion of democracy has been carried out so many times before that it seems to fair to ask if one more stab could do any further harm.

We have heard of women's reservation so many times before that it is impossible to believe that it is finally happening. Although I cannot recall the precise time in our political history when this issue took root, I have a distinct recollection of a very vitriolic speech by Uma Bharati (little surprise!) in Parliament in 1997 daring the then United Front Government to face the wrath of women voters at the hustings. The rest of the BJP probably never shared her zeal; for they did precious little for this cause during their term in power. With just a year to go for the elections, the Congress is desperate to be seen as doing something; anything! And so it happened that this bill and all the banal arguments that come with it, were recovered from the rubbish heap of bad ideas and placed on the table.

First, let us see why political parties dragged their feet over the issue for so long. This is a classic situation in which the leadership of a party is pitted against its own members. While the party high command waxes eloquent about the emancipation of women, the small time MP will face the axe. The sad reality of the bill is that those same MPs will probably wrangle for their tickets to be allotted to female family members, thus starting a dynasty (albeit matriarchal) in every third parliamentary constituency in the country. Besides, all parties stand to gain and lose equally from this measure; in which sense we have an obvious parallel with the anti-defection bill. The BJP which was already bound itself to 33% reservation internally, is eager to make sure that all others share this ordeal. So is the Congress, which has nothing to show for four years in power. In it's zeal, the Congress has offered us an opportunity to see the inner dynamics of the UPA more clearly. It appears that Laloo's opposition to the bill does not matter any more; the Congress has given him up for lost as far as the election is concerned. With the comrades joining the chorus, the bill looks all set to breeze through Parliament as far as numbers are concerned (note in passing: For a party that claims to speak for the underprivileged sections of society, the CPI(M) seems to be dominated almost entirely by upper caste men from a Hindu background; in fact the all powerful politburo has but a lone female member! But then, we have been told, time and again, by Left Front leaders at various levels, that we "do not really understand the culture of the Communist Party", haven't we?)

Is there any good that can come of this bill? It is certainly possible, though to a very limited extent. Certain regional parties that are run by clans will face some of the heat. The SAD, the SP and the DMK are three such easy targets. The ways of their ruling families have become so ossified that even a shift towards matriarchy would be a welcome change. Besides, every party is plagued, to a greater or lesser extent, by local satraps; these are local strongmen (code for anything from criminal to a godman to a caste mukhiya) with their own axes to grind; political liabilities who show up before every election to demand tickets for "their men". This bill might provide parties with the perfect excuse to pass them over and scour the ranks of their hardworking activists for freshness of ideas and purpose. Of course, it would be wonderful if this act of Parliament could energize the female demographic in India to further involve itself in the democratic process.

We have to realize that the Union of India is a democracy. That means all of us have the same civil and legal rights, regardless of gender, caste, creed, religious or political affiliation. Reservation is merely a form of legal discrimination. As such, it generates negative emotions. We have reservations for SCs, STs, tribals, OBCs and what not... and now we want to add women as yet another category. In India, we have "minority educational institutions" that reserve upto 50% of their seats for those of their faith... Raj Thackeray wants reservation for his "Marathi Manoos". How is it any more unfair to ask for reservation on the basis of race or language than it is to do so on the basis of gender? Where does this end? With separate electorates; separate linguistic zones, or with separate nations?

The advancement of women is one of the things we had been doing correctly in India. Yesterday, we learned that a woman is tipped to lead India's most advanced missile defence programme, the Agni-III. The de facto leader of India is a woman; so is our President; so have been the last two Chief Ministers of Delhi. Both Delhi and Mumbai have female mayors. Uttar Pradesh, the most populous state in India, is run by a woman and so is Rajasthan, the largest state. Is it not wonderful how much our women have achieved in sixty years of our existence as a free nation? And now let us examine reservation all over again:

1. Reservation assumes that the children of a historically privileged group are somehow "responsible" for the bigotry of the past and ought to make reparations; i.e. the sins of the father are somehow passed on to the son (pun unintended)

2. Reservation presumes that those of the historically underprivileged group are incapable of advancing themselves unaided; as such we profess lack of faith in individual enterprise and achievement.

3. Reservation leads to negative feelings; after the bad blood and oppression of centuries, why would we want more of that?

The story of Indian women is that of a dream coming true. Women have achieved these heights through hard work and individual brilliance. This should not come to naught.