"Panchayats do not make law, soseat-wise women’s quota was okay"

When Mulayam Singh Yadav opposed the Women's Reservation Bill in the United Front steering committee as well as in Parliament, he was pro...

When Mulayam Singh Yadav opposed the Women’s Reservation Bill in the United Front steering committee as well as in Parliament, he was projected as anti-women and the lone villain trying to scuttle a great project. Months later, almost every political party in the country is following the Mulayam line on women’s reservation after he, along with his new political partner Laloo Prasad Yadav, managed to stall the Bill in Parliament.

SHARAD GUPTA spoke to him this week. Excerpts:

Why did you oppose the Women’s Reservation Bill?

I am not opposed to granting reservation to women. I was opposed only to the present form of the Bill. The Government should not have moved the Bill without getting the consent of all parties. I wanted a 15-per cent quota for women, which should also include a quota for women from the backward castes and minorities. Women would be benefited more if it is made mandatory for all political parties to reserve a certain percentage of tickets for both Assembly andParliamentary polls. Those who don’t follow should be de-recognised by the Election Commission.

What are the other problems with the present form of the Bill?

The bill prescribed a lottery for selecting the constituencies meant to be reserved for women. This will mean that an MP nursing his constituency for the past 15-20 years will suddenly be forced to seek another constituency for himself. When everyone is under fear of losing his constituency, no one will nurse his constituency and this will also breed corruption.

Wasn’t it (the stalling of the Bill) a move to embarrass the BJP?

There was no politics, it was a matter of principles. I had opposed the Bill even during Deve Gowda’s time when I was defence minister. Though Laloo Yadav was not in Parliament then, his party MPs too had opposed the Bill on the same grounds. In fact, I was all alone when I took a stand on the Bill but see now almost the entire Parliament is with me. Even Congress and BJP MPs who could not oppose the Bill dueto party discipline have congratulated me — in their hearts, they are with me. At least 425 MPs in the present Parliament have secretly hailed my stand.

By opposing the Women’s Bill, won’t you lose their votes?

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No, no. Why should I be branded anti-women when I was advocating a quota for them but in a different way. In fact, I was the person who introduced 33-per cent quota for women in municipal and panchayat elections in Uttar Pradesh.

If you supported the quota for women in panchayats, why do you oppose the same for Assembly and Parliament elections?

Panchayats do not make law, so the seat-wise women’s quota was okay there.n So you doubt women’s political understanding or feel that they should be confined to their homes?

It’s nothing of the sort. I hold women in very high esteem. But you should also see that even women like Mayawati were with in us in opposing the present form of the Women’s bill.

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Will you support the Bill if instead of seats, party tickets arereserved?

Mulayam Singh will be the first person to support the move.

Your party did not field more women…

Why don’t you see how many women were fielded by the proponents of the Bill? I had fielded six women out of 81 candidates for Lok Sabha this time and three won. In Laloo Yadav’s tally of 7 there are two women. BJP doesn’t have even this percentage. By this yardstick, there should have been at least 25-26 women MPs in the BJP.

Can there be any rapprochement with the BSP, if not in UP then in any of the other states?

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I haven’t contemplated any alliance so far. But we may go in for an alliance if we get a like-minded party. As far the BSP is concerned, there has not been any progress in our relations.

Kalyan Singh has been hinting at a mid-term Assembly poll. Is your party prepared?

This Government should not be allowed to continue for even one more minute. It has been violating all democratic and moral norms. How would you treat a Chief Minister who engineersdefections and awards defectors with Ministerial posts and inducts criminals in the cabinet?