Sonia faces women trouble with reservations

NEW DELHI, Jan 3: Congress president Sonia Gandhi is already facing woman trouble as she seeks to give effect to the far-reaching decisio...

NEW DELHI, Jan 3: Congress president Sonia Gandhi is already facing woman trouble as she seeks to give effect to the far-reaching decision of the Congress to reserve 33.3 per cent seats for women in all the party bodies, including the Congress Working Committee (CWC).

It means that all the existing seven vacancies in the party’s apex body will have to be filled by women. As it is, there were three vacancies in the 21-member CWC and the Committee’s strength has now been increased to 25 after the amendments in the Congress constitution which were pushed through at the recent AICC meet at Delhi’s Talkatora Gardens. There is only one woman, Meira Kumar, on the present Committee.

Even if Gandhi chooses to recast the whole CWC, which she was authorised to do at the AICC meet, she will have to induct at least eight women. There are signs already of a murmur campaign against such a move. Senior leaders say that the decision was taken without making an assessment of the practical implications of the Constitutionamendment and that there are not enough senior and meritorious women to qualify for the top positions.

However, Gandhi supporters say that the pool of talent is large enough and that the number of women of stature and capability in the Congress is not small. Those being mentioned as possibles are Shiela Dixit, Mohsina Kidwai, Prabha Rau, Ambika Soni, Chandresh Kumari, Girija Vyas, Omem Deori, Margaret Alva, Kamla Beniwal, Susheela Tiria, Suryakanta Patil, Jayanti Patnaik and Urmilaben Patel. Gandhi will have to keep in mind the nine States slated to go to polls this year when she makes her selections.

Gandhi’s problems have also been compounded by her decision to reserve an additional 20 per cent seats in the party bodies for the Scheduled Castes, STs, OBCs and minorities. While the idea was to win back the support of these communities for the Congress, it is creating a reaction in the upper castes, who the Congress is also trying to woo. They feel that if half the seats are going to be reserved forothers, there is going to be little left for them.

Even as she hopes to fashion a new vote-bank comprising women, SCs-STs, minorities, and even some OBCs, Sonia Gandhi will have to address herself to winning back the Brahmins of North India.

This is going to be particularly crucial for the revival of the Congress in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. It is only then that the minorities could go back to the party, for the Muslims are not likely to waste their votes and will plump for whichever party is in a position to vanquish the BJP.

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There were signs of a shift of the Brahmins towards the Congress in the just-held elections in the three Hindi-speaking States. It is to stem this movement that some in the BJP have advocated the replacement of Kalyan Singh by someone belonging to the upper castes. But this is easier said than done, for it could trigger off an OBC backlash in the country’s largest State, and may compel Kalyan Singh and Mulayam Singh to join hands.

Like the BJP, SoniaGandhi too is facing the problem of synthesising sectional interests in a polarised polity and how to give practical shape to her decisions which could otherwise alter the country’s politics. The Congress has had a headstart by going in for 33 per cent reservation for women on party bodies and others will have to follow suit.

Rajiv Gandhi too had contemplated the step in the mid eighties when he tried to bring in the legislation for one third representation to women on panchayats and municipalities, but he could not swing it. The legislations were finally passed during the reign of Narasimha Rao, days after the demolition of the Babri Masjid when the nation’s attention was focussed elsewhere.