By IANS,
Lucknow : Continuing his criticism of the bill providing for reservation to women in parliament and legislative bodies, Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav said here Thursday that quota for women in panchayats and local bodies had not worked even in his own party.
Yadav, who had said a day earlier that the women’s reservation bill introduced in the Rajya Sabha would alter parliament’s character, told IANS Thursday that men continued to rule the local self-governments institutions through the back door despite the quota for women.
He said his own party was no exception to this reality.
Yadav said 22 percent seats in the Lok Sabha were already reserved and if 33 percent were to be earmarked for women, the total reservation would go up to 55 percent.
“This would be grave injustice to the others,” he said.
He clarified he was not opposed to the bill per se, but was not agreeable to it in the present form.
The former Uttar Pradesh chief minister said the bill, in its present form, would harm the interests of minorities and backward classes. “All upper caste and elite women would corner the seats,” he said.
He threatened to launch an agitation if there was no separate reservation for women from the minority communities, including Muslims, Christians and Sikhs, besides Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and other backward classes (OBCs).