Women Bill meet raises questions

BY OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

New Delhi

June 3: After fireworks at its first meeting, a key parliamentary committee going into the contentious Women’s Reservation Bill on Tuesday saw close questioning of those championing the cause of quota for women.

CPI national executive member Annie Raja and three other women members deposed before the committee headed by senior Congress MP E.M. Sudarsana Natchiappan.

Sources said the meeting saw those opposed to the bill in its present form seeking clarification from Raja and others who gave evidence.

The questions included whether it was proper to give such reservation to women without determining the class to which they belong because reservation was so far being given to classes which have been discriminated against, and not to any gender as such.

The committee would see a marathon debate on the issue before it and the panel could also visit several state capitals, the sources said.

The committee has been given three months to submit its report on the bill, which seeks to provide 33 per cent reservation to women in the Lok Sabha and state Assemblies. The committee has already written to five national parties and 42 regional outfits to give their views on the bill.

CPI(M) leader Prakash Karat and CPI leader A.B. Bardhan have already agreed to give their parties’ responses by June 10 and participation by the party representatives during the committee meeting on June 17 and 18, the sources said.

The first meeting of the committee earlier saw fireworks with supporters and opponents of the measure indulging in verbal duels over the issue. Four more women members from the Lok Sabha — Tejaswini Seeramesh Gowda and Krishna Tirath (both Congress), Kiran Maheswari (BJP) and P. Satheedevi (CPI-M) — have been added, taking the number of women members in the 31-member committee to seven. The SP has brought in Ram Gopal Yadav to replace party colleague Shafiqur Rahman Barg.