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This is an archive article published on March 12, 2010
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Opinion Resetting the game

The women’s bill has returned us to first principles on political and social issues....

Seema Chishti

March 12, 2010 11:47 PM IST First published on: Mar 12, 2010 at 11:47 PM IST

A shrewd Kannada film director once confessed that a lot of tricks going into the film-making business in India were directed to bring the “Muslim woman” to the theatre. The reference may not have been politically correct,but made all the sense in the world to him — “because they won’t come alone,they bring with them their large-ish families,and at least a husband or a brother and some children.”

This has not been the stuff of only cinema wallahs,anxious to bring in the crowds. Traditionally,from the very start of the business of mass political mobilisations last century,women were a key factor. When the “men” filled the jails,it was women who kept the struggle going,even if it meant singing “Vijayi Vishwa Tiranga Pyara” outside prisons on fleeting jail visits. They weren’t called in to talk about “mahila” issues but they played to their own strengths and kept the big fire raging as the men were randomly picked up and incarcerated.

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It appeared at first that the Women’s Reservation Bill had been brought in only to take attention away from the grocery bill (inflation). But it seems to have gone far beyond that.

Much has been written about the 20-year Mandal-kamandal

cycle,which many thought had turned full circle in the 2009 general elections. Now,as the Congress has come in with 207 seats,its hopes rest on stretching the secular imagination to boldly embrace the “progressive” label — going beyond the fulfilment of just material needs for those who don’t have them. This is a gamble with a new idea.

As Rahul Gandhi criss-crosses the country meeting university students,a nationwide youth constituency seems to be articulating itself. The Amethi MP is blessed by a coincidence — a helpful step up in the youth curve in demographic terms. Then,PM Manmohan Singh too,the other day,spoke of giving the NRI “the right to vote” — NRIs command a vocal space in public opinion,and perhaps a disproportionate share in public voice.

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And now this,the women’s vote. The fact of getting it through the Rajya Sabha itself was a way of giving an “idea” the power and shape of a “material force” and unleashing a wide and bitter debate about its merits. This appears to be about an idea for changing the way politics is done and conducted. The promise is not that of bringing in MPs who are “more sensitive” or anything (that is another gender stereotype promoted,oddly enough,by feminists). It’s about the offer of unleashing new potential,nurturing new people currently outside policy-making and experimenting with another kind of stratification at a time when other identity markers seem to have run their course.

Again like Mandal,south India is bewildered as several agitated north Indian MPs cross the line between critique and vitriol. In Andhra,for example,as NTR found,even a small issue like prohibition got him half the sky and half the vote with it. This was the precursor to the silent revolution led by the DWACRA — a scheme to help rural women with more opportunities. Or,take the fact that even Jayalalithaa’s mainstay for a long time was the rural women’s vote.

Inside the House,as MPs frantically debate the outcomes,it’s hardly about helping the “Dalit,Minority or OBC woman” as it is about a personal fight for survival. The rotational nature of reserved constituencies makes this legislation appear even more suicidal for a man,as MPs lament a bewildering future of constituencies becoming out of bounds within

15 years.

What is interesting to watch,especially for those of us who saw Mandal take root and give to us the eternal “backward” and “forward” markers,is how the main beneficiaries of B.P. Mandal’s recommendations are the major blockers of another possible game-changer. In fact,their total strength in Parliament has never been as low in two decades as it is now — and that is why the GOP feels it is the right time to strike and carve out a much larger,highly secular,inclusive and progressive base of loyals.

Taking steps that seem out of the “general mood” of the party is nothing new. Indira Gandhi had also stepped out almost exactly 40 years ago,against a very formidable syndicate in her own party and done things that secured her a place and secured her politics. In the face of the conservative politics of Morarji Desai,Nijalingappa and others,“Indiramma” struck out on her own — snatching privy purses,nationalising banks and undertaking other big-ticket changes which will for ever be associated with her.

Is Sonia Gandhi trying something similar?

For those not coming to this from a feminist prism,the women’s bill is a complicated one. Women are not one single undifferentiated class and it would be stretching it to argue that men have it better than women across all categories. In a country rife with various kinds of discrimination — caste,religion,gender,educational disparities,regional disparities — to determine who is “discriminated against” is a very complex exercise.

But if just the feminist prism and a sometimes jarring display of exuberance have put off many,so have the nonsensical arguments of some on the other side,who have argued for the terrible state they find their “burqa/ ghunghat-clad,hapless and kamzor women” in. After all,goes the argument,how will our women compete with well-to-do aggressive upper class and caste bindi brigade? They imply,of course,that they,the men,are perfectly equipped to “compete with” other castes or religions. But their wives and sisters? Never. Also,what has been singularly missing in arguments for an OBC or Muslim quota within a quota (one has been listening very hard) is even a small exhortation or hope that they want their women to step out.

This is one bill where the politics/ antics of what is going on inside the House is not reflective of what changes (good or bad,depending upon your point of view) this will eventually come to mean for India. What all of us in the spectators’ gallery are looking out for is whether the politics of the larger and game-changing variety can overcome the unease of MPs themselves as they sit down to legislate.

seema.chishti @expressindia.com