Sharad Yadav may have his own reasons for so strongly opposing the Women’s reservations bill which seeks to reserve 33% of seats in parliament for women. He has a point and will get many supporters. Reservation anywhere on any basis breeds mediocrity. Any reservation is against the idea of justice and fair play. It is discriminatory. It cannot be in accordance with the Constitution. Certain reservations for the most backward and downtrodden communities are enshrined in the Constitution for the reasons of social injustice done to them over centuries. It is the tragedy of our country that those scheduled casts and tribes have not received the uplift for over half a century of our independence and hence those reservations have perpetuated. Except these, all reservations on any ground should be considered unconstitutional.
The number of women members in the 15th Lok Sabha is 59. Women have risen to this number not because of any reservations. These ladies are doing a commendable job in the parliament. If the proposed Women’s Bill is passed, the damage is twofold. The number of women in the house will be restricted to 33% and the merit of the member will suffer for many years to come. We can raise this number even to 50% and more by giving women a level playing field. In certain professional colleges the number of girls in a class of hundred, a few decades ago, was in single digit. Today the gender situation has reversed. Equal opportunity and not reservation should be the mantra.
Also the system of reserving certain constituencies for scheduled casts needs to be scrapped. A person can never dream of representing his constituency if it is reserved for scheduled cast and he does not belong to one. Also a scheduled cast member will naturally be discouraged from representing the constituency of his residence because he will be asked to contest from a reserved one.
Dr Mookhi Amir Ali
Mumbai, Maharashtra