Women's bill: BJP pushing for poll panel formula

By Neena Vyas

NEW DELHI, DEC. 19. The Bharatiya Janata Party is making serious backroom efforts to arrive at a ``consensus'' not on giving women 33 per cent reservation in the Lok Sabha and State Assemblies, but on the ``suggestion'' by the Election Commission that the Representation of the People Act be amended to make it mandatory for all recognised political parties to select at least 33 per cent women candidates for all Lok Sabha and Assembly seats the party contests.

Officially the BJP went on record to say that the Union Home Minister, Mr. L. K. Advani, had ``almost'' arrived at a consensus among the National Democratic Alliance partners on the Women's Reservation Bill in the form it was introduced in the Lok Sabha. But separately, authoritative government sources indicated that efforts were on to get political parties to agree to the Election Commission formula which also has the support of parties such as the Samajwadi Party, which is otherwise opposed to the women's bill.

What the BJP wants is a ``yes'' from the Congress to this effort. ``We will be ready to initiate a discussion on this among parties and bring it as a government proposal,'' a government source said. It was denied that if the Congress were to agree the BJP would simply use it to spread the message that the Congress was opposing the bill. The issue came up at the BJP parliamentary party this morning where Mr. Advani said he was hoping for unanimity on the bill in the NDA. Some members again raised the issue of a quota for the backward caste women within the overall reservation, but it was not taken forward.

That some other ``option,'' other than a straight 33 per cent reservation for women was being seriously considered, was first revealed by the BJP spokesperson, Mr. V. K. Malhotra, who said at the briefing that there were ``several other options (to the bill).'' Later, a senior Minister confirmed this, saying that ``if the Congress were to agree on the Election Commission formula we are prepared to take this up as a government initiative.'' Of course, the Government has a valid point - that the bill in its present form does suffer from several infirmities. The question of ``rotation'' of reserved constituencies and the neglect of those constituencies this may result in was one issue of concern to MPs of all parties, and then there were the demands for sub-quotas for backward castes, for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes apart from the existing reserved SC/ST seats. Also the question would arise, why not one- third seats for women in the Rajya Sabha and upper houses in the States. ``It would open a Pandora's box,'' was the comment.

No one, but no one in any political party really believes that on December 21, when the Government plans to bring it to the Lok Sabha for consideration and passing, the bill would be adopted. The CPI(M) said as much, when Mr. Somnath Chatterjee pointed out that the Government had cleverly decided to bring the bill towards the end of the session so as not to allow time for matters to be sorted out. ``The BJP wants to be able to say: look we wanted the bill, but the Lok Sabha did not allow its passage.''

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