NEW DELHI, DECEMBER 13: The lawmakers on Monday turned coy on bringing a legislation in Lok Sabha, barring persons having more than two children from contesting Assembly and Parliamentary elections.Almost all parties with sole exception of CPI, opposed the 79th Constitution Amendment Bill tooth and nail, at an all-party meeting convened by Health Minister N T Shanmugham in Parliament House this morning. The act was supposed to have included elections up to panchayat-level in the first phase and Government employees in the second.The arguments forwarded by various parties in blocking the bill ranged from being innovative to thoughtful. Though there was no woman MP in Monday's meeting, a number of women organisations are learnt to have opposed the bill on the ground that it would further limit participation of women in politics.The Muslim League MP, G M Banatwala cited religious reasons for opposing the bill. If a Muslim having two children wants to marry again, he won't be allowed to have childrenfrom the second marriage. How can we deprive motherhood right to an innocent woman, he is learned to have argued.Another MP made a similar argument about a widower having two children wanting to marry again with a widow already having her own children. Yet another politician said usual reproductive age of human beings are between 18 and 35 while average age of an MP was 50. That means most of the MPs are well past their reproductive age and hence the legislation would have had no impact on them. Yet another participant apprehended such a law would prompt people to go for fake divorce like they do to avoid income tax sleuths.The women organisations apprehended the law to be another handicap for women politicians. In male-dominated Indian society women seldom have right to motherhood. The law may be misused by jealous men from disqualifying their spouses from contesting elections, they argued.Interestingly, five state governments have enacted laws, which ban a person having more than two children tocontest local body elections. These states are: Rajasthan, Harayana, Andhra Pradesh, Delhi and Orissa.Today's meeting was convened as per the recommendation of the Standing Committee of Human Resource Development Ministry, to discuss the amendment in the Constitution. This legislation was conceived at a National Development Council meeting on December 24, 1991 and subsequently cleared by Planning Commission.The bill was introduced in the Rajya Sabha in December 1992 and was handed over to a Standing Committee headed by P Upendra. Other members of the committee were Mani Shankar Aiyar, Murasoli Maran, Chaturanan Mishra etc. The committee in its report approved legislation while recommending that an effort should be made to arrive at a consensus. The bill has been pending in the Rajya Sabha ever since until of course the BJP Government dusted it and discussed at the all-party meeting today.The BJP representative K R Malkani said his party was yet to go through the bill while Madhav Rao Scindia ofCongress, said his party would give an opinion after a consensus was arrived on the bill. However, the CPI supported the bill saying this move will help the Government in controlling the population.
