While JD(U) president Sharad Yadav registered his opposition to the Women’s Reservation Bill in the Rajya Sabha on May 6, another NDA partner, Shiv Sena, has now vowed to oppose the Bill in its present form. The BJP is a key advocate of reservation of Assembly and parliamentary seats for women. “We do not support 33 per cent reservation of constituencies for women in legislatures,” Sena spokesman and Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Raut told The Indian Express on Thursday. “On the other hand, we find the Election Commission formula — making it mandatory for parties to allot a certain percentage of tickets to women — far more pragmatic.”Political parties, according to him, face difficulty finding enough women candidates when they have a free choice, and reservation of constituencies would make things worse for them. In an editorial in the party mouthpiece Saamna, the Sena is even more critical of the Bill. Terming the “hurriedly introduced” legislation a “political hypocrisy”, the editorial says it may be passed by Parliament due to majority support, but reservations would not benefit women. The move, according to the daily, is intended to reap political benefits and not to ensure the welfare of women.No one provided any reservation to Indira Gandhi, the Saamna editorial adds, nor CM Mayawati. It points out that even though the BSP supremo played caste politics, she had achieved success long before the Women’s Reservation Bill was introduced. Saamna also mocked Railways Minister Lalu Yadav over his advocacy of quotas for Dalits and minorities within the women’s quota. “Why did he not think of installing a Dalit, OBC or a minority community woman as Bihar CM instead of his wife Rabri Devi?” the editorial asks.
