By IANS
New Delhi : Accusing the government of avoiding a solution to the issue of women’s reservation in parliament and state assemblies, the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Friday said it will organise a massive rally next month to demand 33 percent reservation for women.
BJP spokesperson Sushma Swaraj told presspersons Friday, “The women’s reservation issue has been pending for the past 11 years. There have been three broad proposals presented till now but the issue has not been resolved.”
She said the BJP Mahila Morcha would be meeting Saturday to chalk out a strategy to fight for the cause.
The Mahila Morcha will organize a rally at the Ramlila grounds here Feb 21 to demand 33 percent reservation for women.
Swaraj stated that three proposals have been put forward since the idea came up. “The first proposal was through legislation where 33 percent seats in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies would be reserved for women. The Deve Gowda government came up with this proposal. Here, the seats were to be rotated and the reservation was to be for 15 years,” she informed.
The Election Commission of India mooted the second proposal. The poll panel suggested that political parties should reserve 33 percent tickets for their women candidates while distributing party tickets. If any political party failed to do so, it would be de-recognized.
The third proposal for women’s reservation came from the present Home Minister Shivraj Patil, who suggested around two years ago that the number of seats in the Lok Sabha be increased to 800 (from 550 at present) and 1/3 of these be reserved for women.
While the BJP was earlier in agreement with Patil’s proposal, it has changed its stance now.
“The delimitation exercise has been completed recently. And if the seats are increased to 800, then the whole exercise will have to be started all over again. So this proposal is not practical,” Swaraj said.
The Left parties, Congress and BJP have been in agreement over the need for women’s reservation. “But now the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government is not able to present a bill (in this regard) as the parties opposing it (Lalu Yadav’s Rashtriya Janata Dal) are a part of it. Hence, it never gets clearance from the cabinet,” Swaraj said.
The BJP favours the poll panel proposal that the political parties reserve 33 percent tickets for women candidates. “If this is done through legislation, then it will be practical as well as feasible,” Swaraj said.
Asked whether the BJP would follow the reservation while giving tickets to its Lok Sabha and assembly election candidates, Swaraj said that this is not possible unless legislation is in place and other parties are also bound by it.
According to the BJP, it will also solve the ‘quota within quota issue’ (the demand that within the 33 percent reservation for women various sections like SC, ST, OBC be considered). It will also take up the issue of rotation of reserved constituencies. The party also said it would set to rest the apprehension among many male MPs that they would lose their pocket boroughs to female candidates.
“We suggest that the Women’s Reservation Bill be presented in the upcoming budget session through an ordinary bill,” Swaraj said.