Death of decency

What happened to the Women's Bill in Parliament on Monday should surprise no one, but it certainly should make the political establishment h...

What happened to the Women8217;s Bill in Parliament on Monday should surprise no one, but it certainly should make the political establishment hang its head in shame. The Bill may have been overtly opposed only by Messrs Laloo Prasad Yadav and Mulayam Singh Yadav and company, but covertly all political parties save those on the left have conspired to sabotage it.

They appear to have succeeded rather well. The very manner of the government8217;s introduction of the Bill, it appears, was designed to attract maximum aggression from its avowed opponents, have the Speaker defer it, and basically get rid of a measure that few dared disown in public but everyone wished to see the back of. The violence in the House is a relatively small part of the story.

It still shocks and is deeply deplorable, but it is no longer a startling novelty for Indians to see their elected representatives employ brawn in place of brain. What is still more disgusting is the extent of contrivance and conspiracy by all the parties to kill thisBill.

And yet what has transpired is a sorry vindication of this newspaper8217;s traditional position that affirmative action is a wrong-headed idea. The hypocrisy and brazenness of political parties in pretending to back it while working overtime to demolish it is not in doubt. Let them have the courage of their conviction and convince this country, and its female electorate, why they oppose it. For their two-faced ways, they deserve unabashed loathing.

But decrying them does not make the problem 8212; practical and intellectual 8212; with affirmative action go away. Once unleashed, such action perpetuates and propagates itself in the most divisive ways. One of the things deeply worrying politicians is what would happen if the issue of OBC reservations in Parliament gets extended to its male membership as well. It is a legitimate concern, and should have been stated upfront.

No matter that OBC reservation is no more than a ploy by the Laloo Yadavs and Mulayam Singhs to set the cat among the pigeons. They areright to think that once this is acknowledged as a principle, it is only a matter of time before OBC reservations for men is raised by some other populist-opportunists.

This is precisely the trouble. If gender-based reservations are valid, why not caste-based ones, why not income-based ones, why not religion-based ones? In practical terms it is not hard to make a distinction. Women make fully one half of society, and a half that has been and continues manifestly to be oppressed. No other category of historically oppressed sections can match them numerically. But numerical majority is only one criterion by which to judge the matter.

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Historical oppression is an equally powerful one. On the first women clearly win, on the second they do not qualify alone. So is Parliament to be parcelled into lots of the historically oppressed, leaving the rest of mainstream India to its own devices? There are no easy answers. Without radicalism from the top, Indian society has proved itself singularly adept at keeping themarginalised at bay 8212; the fate of the women8217;s Bill is proof.

Yet reservations also are tokenist, a tacit admission of failure to bring about widespread and meaningful change. After Monday8217;s events, the country will have much leisure to reflect on this vexed issue.