The chequered legislative history of the Women’s Reservation Bill began 27 years ago when the H D Deve Gowda-led government introduced it in Parliament in September 1996.
Almost every government has since tried to push it through — the UPA government even managed to get it passed in Rajya Sabha in 2010 — but the move could not come to fruition for lack of political will and consensus.
First attempt: United Front Govt
The Constitution (Eighty-first Amendment) Bill, 1996 (insertion of new Articles 330A and 332A) was first introduced in the Lok Sabha on September 12, 1996 by Ramakant D Khalap, the then Minister of State for Law in the United Front government, a coalition of 13 parties.
It was a surprise move, with several leaders of the Janata Party and other constituents of the ruling coalition not being in its favour. The Bill was referred to a Joint Committee headed by the CPI’s Geeta Mukherjee the following day.
Among the 31 members of the parliamentary panel were (then MPs) Mamata BanerjeeMeira Kumar, Sumitra Mahajan, Nitish KumarSharad Pawar, Vijay Bhaskara Reddy, Sushma SwarajUma Bharati, Girija Vyas, Ram Gopal Yadav, Sushil Kumar Shinde, and Hannan Mollah.
The panel proposed seven major suggestions and felt that the Bill’s wording of “not less than one third” with regard to reservation for women was vague and liable to be interpreted differently.
The government of Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda tabled The Constitution (81st Amendment) Bill, which sought to reserve one-third of seats for women in Parliament and state legislatures. (Express Archive)
They suggested that it be substituted by “as nearly as may be, one-third” so as to leave no scope for ambiguity. The panel also suggested that there should be reservation of seats for women in the Rajya Sabha and the Legislative Councils and even stated that the benefit of reservation to the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) should be considered “at the appropriate time”.
The committee recommended that the provisions governing the reservation of seats for women in the Lok Sabha and the state Assemblies should be for a period of 15 years from the date of commencement of the Act, with them being reviewed after that period to decide whether the reservations should continue. It also suggested that one of the members nominated from the Anglo-Indian community shall be women by rotation.
The panel also spoke about states where there were existing reservations to the Scheduled Castes (SCs) and the Scheduled Tribes (STs) in “less than three seats”. In such a case, the committee suggested a rotation policy: one seat reserved for women in the first term and the other seat reserved in the second term, with the seats being unreserved in the third term.
The committee adopted its report in December 1996. But there were strong dissenting voices. Among them was Nitish Kumarthe current Bihar Chief Minister, who spoke of reservation for OBC women.
“This Bill provides for reservation to women belonging to SCs and STs. I am of the opinion that women belonging to OBCs should also get a fair deal. Therefore I want that one-third reservation should include women belonging to OBCs… The reservation should be in proportion to the population of OBCs,” Kumar said in his dissent note.
There were similar dissent notes from Mollah, Yadav and the DMK’s P N Siva.
The Bill was taken up for discussion in the Lok Sabha on May 16, 1997 but there was stiff opposition from within the ruling coalition.
The discussion saw the late socialist MP Sharad Yadav making his infamous statement that “Who is a woman, who is not, only short-haired women won’t be allowed)”.
He argued that women with short hair — a euphemism for educated and ‘modern’ women — would “dominate” the legislatures if the Bill was passed.
Yadav’s statements soon made headlines. Leaders from the Hindi heartland opposed the Bill owing to the OBC sub-quota demand. The UF government could not pass the Bill and it lapsed after the dissolution of this Lok Sabha.
Second attempt: NDA Govt
Between 1998 and 2004, the BJP-led NDA government headed by Atal Bihari Vajpayee tried to get the Bill passed multiple times.
The first time, on July 13, 1998, the Lok Sabha saw chaotic scenes. As the then Law Minister M Thambi Durai tried to introduce the Bill, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Samajwadi Party (SP) MPs registered their protests. Amidst the ruckus, one RJD MP — Surendra Prasad Yadav — snatched the copies of the Bill from Speaker G M C Balayogi and tore them up.
A minister in the Bihar government now, Surendra recently said that he tore a copy of the Bill “because B R Ambedkar had appeared in his dream and asked him to do so”.
The Bill was listed for introduction the next day as well, but the Speaker deferred the introduction as a “consensus” was not possible.
Similar scenes played out in December that year. On December 11, 1998, the Lok Sabha saw unruly scenes when Mamata Banerjee tried to physically prevent SP MP Daroga Prasad Saroj from advancing towards the Speaker’s podium.
The Bill was finally introduced on December 23, 1998 despite protests from the members of the SP-led Rashtriya Loktantrik Morcha, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Muslim League. There were differences among the NDA allies over it as well.
Nitish, who was opposed to the Bill, was then the Railway Minister. The Bill, however, lapsed as the House was dissolved after the fall of the Vajpayee government in April 1999.
Vajpayee Govt tries again
After Vajpayee formed the NDA government again, the Bill was introduced on December 23, 1999 by then Law Minister Ram Jethmalani. This was again greeted by protests from the members of the SP, BSP, and RJD.
The Vajpayee government tried to push the Bill three times afterwards — in 2000, 2002 and 2003, but could not succeed despite support from the Congress and the Left, the main Opposition parties at the time.
In July 2003, the then Speaker Manohar Joshi convened an all-party meeting to try and build a consensus but was unsuccessful. The Bill subsequently lapsed.
UPA push for the Bill
The common minimum programme of the Congress-led government headed by PM Manmohan Singhwhich took office in May 2004, declared that the UPA will “take the lead to introduce legislation for one-third reservation for women in Vidhan Sabhas and in the Lok Sabha”. Then President APJ Abdul Kalam reiterated the government’s commitment in his first joint address to Parliament in 2004.
But it was not easy, since a few of the UPA’s key constituents such as the RJD — RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav was then the Railway Minister — were not in its favour.
The UPA government finally introduced the Bill on May 6, 2008 — and as was the case up to this point — dramatic scenes followed.
Before Law Minister H R Bhardwaj could rise, SP MP Abu Azmi rushed towards him to snatch the copy of the Bill even as then Women and Child Development Minister Renuka Chowdhury, along with some other Congress MPs, tried to block him physically and cordon off Bhardwaj. Another SP MP hurled pieces of torn paper into the well of the House.
With the Congress MPs forming a security ring around him, Bhardwaj finally introduced the Bill, which was later referred to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice.
The Bill sought to reserve, as nearly as may be, one third seats of the Lok Sabha and Legislative Assembly for women and provide one-third the number of seats reserved for the SCs and STs in the Lok Sabha and state Assemblies for women of those categories.
The committee, which submitted its report to Parliament in December 2009, recommended that the Bill be passed in its present form without any delay. Two members of the 31-member panel, SP leaders Virendra Bhatia and Shailendra Kumar, registered their dissent. Like the Mukherjee panel, it also suggested that the government should consider the demand for reservation within reservation for OBC women and some minorities at an appropriate time.
March 9, 2010: Red-letter day
A breakthrough came in 2010. The RJD was no longer a part of the UPA government, and along with the SP, extended outside support. In a surprise move, Kumar made a U-turn and extended support to the Bill, leaving his senior party colleague Sharad Yadav red-faced.
After two days of spirited discussion, the Rajya Sabhaon March 9, 2010, passed the Bill by over a two-third majority — the BJP and the Left, who were in the Opposition, supported it — with 186 in favour and one opposing vote coming from farm leader Sharad Joshi.
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The previous day, the Rajya Sabha had witnessed chaotic scenes. The SP’s Nand Kishore Yadav and Kamal Akhtar climbed onto the then Chairman Hamid Ansari’s table — Nand Kishore even uprooted the microphone — and the RJD’s Rajniti Prasad tore up a copy of the Bill and hurled it at the Chairman. SP’s Veerpal Singh Yadav, Independent Ejaz Ali, Lok Janshakti Party’s Sabir Ali and the RJD’s Subhash Yadav also tried to prevent discussion.
On the day the Bill was passed, all seven of them were suspended for “unruly” conduct and were physically evicted by marshals. While the BSP walked out, the Trinamool Congress did not participate in the voting.
The UPA government, however, did not show the political will to get the Bill passed in the Lok Sabha despite the BJP and the Left supporting it. In 2011, Speaker Meira Kumar convened an all-party meeting to break the deadlock, but in vain.
