Home truths on quota war

Houses in Uproar: Women’s Reservation Bill grabs the limelight

Last Sunday, your paper heralded International’s Women Day with a special edition on India’s successful women—some known, some unsung, yet those who have made it to the top league in their respective fields with sheer grit, determination and courage. On Monday—when the world was celebrating IWD—ugly scenes erupted in the House of Elders, and a few opposed to a Bill that gave 33% reservation to women in Lok Sabha and state assemblies roughed up the Vice President, the chairman of Rajya Sabha, and tore apart and even flung a copy of the Bill. Politicians traded charges, the two Houses of Parliament were adjourned several times over giving prime-time TV anchors enough reason to holler that a Bill could not be passed on an auspicious day.

The fate of the woman however remained hung for another night. After all the drama and unprecedented use of marshalls to throw out unruly MPs from the house, the Rajya Sabha passed the Bill. The Congress was quick to bestow all credit to party chairperson Sonia Gandhi, who was all over TV channels all evening, leaving the BJP and some other opposition parties fuming, and even divided. But all isn’t over yet. The debate rages on... When will the Bill be presented in the Lok Sabha, and will it go through? After all, the support of like-minded regional satraps such as Mulayam Singh Yadav, Lalu Prasad and Mamata Banerjee is crucial for the survival of the UPA government for the next four years.
    
Amid the din, however, our lawmakers forgot that just a couple of days ago they were trying to corner the government on the issue of rising food prices, and the budget proposal which made prices of petrol and diesel go up. For once, the Opposition was united and the aam aadmi felt wanted. The government however kept assuring the House that everything would be fine soon enough.
    
By the end of the week came news that food inflation during the last week of February had indeed eased marginally to 17.81%, from 17.87%. But economists said it may not soothe overall inflation as petrol and diesel prices rose sharply following the hike in duty rates. Though a range of essential items still continue to be expensive, the rate of price rise fell in the past few weeks. Year-on-year, pulses were dearer by 33.38%, slightly lower than over 35% in the previous week, while potatoes turned costlier by 22.46%. Onion rose by just 2.98%. Overall vegetable prices shot up by 15.61%, milk 15.31% and fruit 11.77%. Ask the Indian women who blows into an earthen chulha to cook a lean meal — she would probably be more worried about rising prices than the all the tamasha over the Woman’s Reservation Bill.