Uncle SAM called me the other day. 'What's this I hear about Indians sending off fifty percent of their women to a reservation?', he sniggered. Uncle Sam seemed a tiny bit perplexed. He had no reservations about sending Indians to reservations a few hundred years ago, but Indians sending off their women to reservations was a new one, he said. "I'm not gonna beat about The Bush, you Indians need a shrink, a good one," he said.
There are a lot of economists and family welfare people who also insist that the Indian population needs a good shrink or two, but that's beside the point.
On International Women's Day, Sonia Gandhi wanted to send off half the women to the reservation and asked the House to pay the Bill. Now, Lalu Prasad and a few others had deep seated reservations about the reservations and so they performed an embarassment in the Highest House of the land, in full public view, and had everyone on the Angrezi-speaking channels wringing their hands and shaking their heads in red faced mock horror.
Seriously, this idea of forcing the Indian public to vote a particular gender into its house of reprersentatives is a very bad idea. It perpetuates the dynasty in politics, because in many cases, the strong local leader will just get his wife elected and still 'rule by proxy' . In other words do a Lalu Prasad to his electorate. [Okay, for my international readers, Lalu Prasad was the chap who got his dutiful wife elected as Chief Minister of Bihar and virtually ruled the state for two terms].
We've had many women in Parliament who are there because they are leaders in the true sense and not just eye-candy. They are taken very seriously by the electorate and by the house. Having women in Parliament on a quota basis - is like having them there for eye candy , it's cosmetic and condemnable. The Women's reservation bill demeans women. And having a quota for dalit women inside the quota for women is taking this absurdity to ridiculous lengths.
I say, if the Indian Woman thought this one through she would oppose this brainless Bill!
4 comments:
It's funny how many politicians are getting mileage over 'women's rights' issues in India. Fake seats for women on International Women's Day... so what if IWD is a hundred years' old, women in India don't have the right to their own bodies most of the time. First allow your women to hook up with whom they chose. Ley girls date freely and openly. let women choose their own life partners. Ley women remain single and puruse careers if they so choose. Once that happens, they won't need reservation!
Since I last posted, the Rajya Sabha has passed the Bill. It should have no problems getting through the Lok Sabha, except for some [unfortunate] tantrums. However, I still have serious misgivings about the wisdom of this Bill
I totally agree with you sir Infact I being a woman strongly oppose this bill because this is not for the welfare of "THe Women"; rather it is only a fake matter, considered as for women's welfare. I think male should also be given this bill why shouldn't they?
If they are considering to give equal rights to women's?
Being a girl i feel insulted because i don't need something as stupid as reservation to prove myslf...rather it blurrs my identity as an individual. Giving reservations to women is like proving the superiority of men over them. What a paradox! I dont even see reservation proving to be of any use to the larger women population who actualy need to be emancipated! its sheer nonsense!
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