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Speaker optimistic about Women’s Bill

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee has expressed the hope that the Women’s Reservation Bill will get Parliament’s nod during his tenure as chairman of the Lower House.

Delivering the EMS Memorial Lecture at the inauguration of the year-long EMS Centenary Celebrations planned by the Institute of Parliamentary Affairs here on Friday, Mr. Chatterjee said the revived interest in the Bill (to provide 33 per cent reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and State legislatures) was a good development.

“I feel women’s participation and empowerment at all levels of society is undoubtedly the key to propelling democracy forward…A large section of our population is looking forward to it with great interest,” he said.

Speaking on the topic “Democratic Consolidation: The Indian Experience,” he said that India, during the past six decades of freedom, had not only sustained, but also reinforced a vibrant system of governance based on parliamentary democracy committed to secularism and inclusive and equitable development. India had become a strong nation in all respects and was now being acknowledged as a significant player in the global economy. The country achieved all this despite efforts from within and without to divide it using religion, caste, insurgencies, terrorism, proxy wars and external aggressions.

The country overcame the challenges along the path of its progress because of the institutional framework it had for a successful democracy—a parliamentary polity reinforced by a multi-party system and provisions for free and fair elections, accountability of the executive, independence of judiciary, existence of a free and vigilant Fourth Estate and an ever-watchful citizenry.

This institutional framework could come under pressure now, he said, describing the degenerative tendencies creeping over the system in general—money and muscle power in elections, a slow and expensive justice delivery mechanism, corruption, eroding ethical standards, the use of the nation’s religious diversity as a tool for confrontational politics and a media that was letting itself to be used as proxies in divisive battles.

Mr. Chatterjee said that, even when the democratic institutions were well in place, growing inequities in society could undermine the excellent democratic system that had taken the country this far. “It is a strange paradox that while in the last decade, our economy grew at an average annual rate of about seven per cent, about 40 per cent of the world’s poor still live in India and at the same time the number of billionaires is growing,” he said.

Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan, who inaugurated the centenary celebrations, paid glowing tributes to the late E.M.S. Namboothiripad, the first Chief Minister of the State, for his role in moulding Kerala into one of the most progressive State. Minister for Parliamentary Affairs M. Vijayakumar presided. A. Sampath, member of the board of directors of the Institute of Parliamentary Affairs, welcomed the gathering and J. Prakash, the institute’s director general, proposed a vote of thanks.

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