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Journalism of Courage
AFTER MANDAL-KAMANDAL politics of the past two decades brought about overwhelming changes in the political landscape, the BJP has identified that the next game changer for the Indian electoral scene would be more women leading from the front.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has often invoked the country’s “nari shakti (women power)”, and identified women as the BJP’s “silent voters”. He used his 2022 Independence Day speech to call for “respecting women”. Last April, while addressing party workers on the BJP Foundation Day, Modi said the government’s policies and welfare measures for women had given them “fresh confidence”, and made them loyal BJP voters.
The turnout of women voters has been on the rise, surpassing men in some state elections. The party believes this was one reason for its spectacular return to power in Uttar Pradesh last year, with women voters outnumbering men in the state elections.
So, party leaders say, on the road to the 2024 general elections, there could be more programmes and schemes targeted at women by the government, building up finally to the “masterstroke”: passage of the long-pending, much-awaited women’s reservation Bill.
There are clear signals regarding this. One of the standing instructions of Modi to party leaders is that there must be strong women representation of women in candidates’ list for state elections. Whenever the party Central Election Committee meets, the PM always asks how many women have been given tickets. “So, before presenting the list, the leaders clarify beforehand that these many women figure in it,” said a party leader.
For Tripura, which goes to polls on February 16, women make up 11 of the BJP’s 55 candidates, including Pratima Bhoumik, a surprise choice given that she is a Union Minister of State. Party sources said Bhoumik, who will contest from Dhanpur, could be the party’s chief minister if the BJP wins. That would make her the first ever woman CM in the Northeast — sending a strong message to women voters in the region, where their social status is on an average higher compared to other states.
Last year, after Modi had urged BJP-ruled states to focus on policies and welfare measures for women, Tripura was among the states that announced reservation of 33 per cent of all state government jobs for women.
In his speech to BJP workers last April, the PM said: “With Dalits, the weaker sections, Backwards and youth, women too now support the BJP… Women have been given new rights, good governance has given them security, and keeping their health in mind, schemes provide them gas connection, free rations and health benefits.”
Among the BJP outfits that will spread the message of the government’s initiatives ahead of the 2024 elections is the Mahila Morcha, which is set to initiate a nation-wide training programme for its members on these schemes beginning next month. After training, the women workers would head out to states to monitor the programmes and ensure that no deserving person has been left out. “This is to see that the party’s women outreach is the maximum,” said BJP Mahila Morcha president Vanathi Srinavasan.
If Modi ensures passage of the women’s reservation Bill, setting aside 33 per cent seats for women in Parliament and state Assemblies, it will be a significant legacy for the PM.
The constitutional amendment Bill to provide reservation to women first came up for discussion before Parliament in September 1996, but was torpedoed by regional parties then, and in 1998, 1999 and 2010.
Giving more representation to women in legislative bodies has been a cause undertaken by several PMs, right from Jawaharlal Nehru to Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh. However, it has been a lost cause so far, with the numbers underlining the failure – the first Lok Sabha had 22 women (4.4% of total); sixth had 19 women MPs (3.4%); while in the current one, their number at 78 still adds up to only 14.4%. No state has more than 15% women representation in their Assemblies.
In 1998, the Vajpayee government introduced a women’s quota Bill, which was passed by the Lok Sabha but lapsed once the short-lived government fell and the House was dissolved.
In 2008, the Manmohan Singh government decided to take the Rajya Sabha route, where a Bill does not lapse due to the continuous nature of the Upper House. A committee headed by Congress leader Jayanthi Natarajan gave a clear go-ahead to the Bill. However, the Rajya Sabha witnessed one of its worst chaotic sessions and unruly scenes when the Bill was finally taken up on International Women’s Day (March 8) in 2010.
The Bill was finally passed with 186 votes on the following day but has been pending before the Lok Sabha since then.
The most path-breaking measures for women’s representation in politics remain the 73rd (Panchayat Raj) and 74th (Municipal Bodies) amendment Bills passed in 1992 under the P V Narasimha Rao government, reserving 33 % seats for women in panchayats and urban local bodies.
With its brute majority in the Lok Sabha, the BJP can easily get the women’s quota Bill passed now. Even if there are changes in the original legislation, it may have no trouble getting these cleared by the Rajya Sabha, with leading parties expected to extend support to it. Several regional parties, such as the BJD, Trinamool Congress and DMK support reservation for women. The old generation of the RJD and Samajwadi Party that was among its most strident opponents is no longer in the picture.
Although there is a view that a legislation is not required to provide equal rights to women – most of them quote Renuka Ray, a member of the Constituent Assembly who opposed it as an insult to women’s intelligence and capacity – its appeal to women across castes, regions and religions cannot be underestimated.
And that, both Modi and the BJP know.
