Muslim outfits on women’s reservation Bill: ‘Not all women enjoy same privilege’, demand OBC quota

Indian Union Muslim League’s (IUML) Rajya Sabha MP P V Abdul Wahab said his party had certain reservations about the Bill. “We are concerned that there is no OBC reservation, which is extremely important. Muslims are the biggest component of OBCs. While there has been no caste census in the recent past, we are confident in saying that OBCs comprise at least 50 per cent of India’s population, if not more,” Wahab told The Indian Express.

Emphasising the need for OBC representation, even if it meant taking the reservation pie up to 50 per cent, Wahab said, “We believe that elite women will get more opportunities due to historical reasons. OBCs have lower access to electoral processes. In Kerala, for example, there is 51% reservation of women in the panchayats. There is no separate OBC or Muslim reservation, but Muslim women also see representation.”

The Bill, officially called the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, cleared the Rajya Sabha hurdle on Thursday with 214 votes in favour and zero against it.

The All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) has not made a statement on the Bill so far, with AIMPLB spokesperson and executive member S Q R Ilyas saying that “matters of electoral processes do not fall within the purview of the Board’s concerns”.

But Ilyas’ party, the Welfare Party, supports the Bill, though not unreservedly. “How can we be against the passing of a Bill that ensures increased representation? Of course, it is welcome. But whether the Bill will be implemented, we will have to wait and watch. We believe that there should be 50 per cent reservation and not 33 per cent. And we want the reservation implemented immediately so that it can come into effect for the 2024 elections. Why wait?” he said.

The Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind, one of the most influential Muslim bodies in the country, has not issued a formal statement. Its secretary Niaz Ahmad Farooqui said, “We don’t have an official reaction, but we absolutely support the women’s reservation Bill. You cannot argue against women’s empowerment, and this step has been very welcome. Having said that, not all women are equal or enjoy the same privilege. We feel that the government should consider this.”

Farooqui also raised the issue of delimitation, saying that it should not be a “tool of discrimination”. He said, “The other issue that we have is that of the delimitation. It should not be used as a tool to discriminate against any community. There are several constituencies in which the Muslim population is in the majority. In the past such constituencies were split and made SC/ST reserved constituencies, thus alienating the Muslim community here.”

During the Lok Sabha debate, Owaisi called the Bill an “election stunt” and a “distraction Bill”. The Hyderabad MP said, “If the Modi administration’s justification for bringing the Bill is to increase women’s representation, then why has this justification not been extended to the OBC and Muslim women when their presence in the House is minimal? Muslim women are 7 per cent of the population of the country, but their representation in the Lok Sabha is barely 0.7 per cent … This Modi government only wants increased representation of the savarna woman. They don’t want it for OBC and Muslim women.”

The AIMIM chief pointed out that of the 690 women elected to the Lok Sabha so far, only 25 were Muslims.