On the very first day of the special session that began on September 18, the Modi government’s cabinet approved the Women’s Reservation Bill. This bill was first introduced in September 1996 by the HD Deve Gowda government. After this year, every government tried to pass the Women’s Reservation Bill.
In the year 2010, the UPA government was successful in getting this bill passed in the Rajya Sabha but it got stuck in the Lok Sabha. This bill may have been approved today but if we look at its history, we will find that its journey in the last 27 years has not been easy at all. In such a situation, let us know in this news when this bill was presented in the Parliament and which leaders were in opposition.
Why the bill could not be passed in 1996
When HD Deve Gowda’s government introduced the Women’s Reservation Bill in Parliament for the first time. At that time, there was a United Front government in the country with a coalition of 13 parties. But leaders of Janata Dal and some other parties were not in favor of passing the bill. Due to opposition from these parties and leaders, the Women’s Reservation Bill was sent to the 31-member Parliamentary Joint Committee led by CPI’s Geeta Mukherjee.
This committee included Nitish Kumar, Sharad Pawar, Vijay Bhaskar Reddy, Mamata Banerjee, Meira Kumar, Sumitra Mahajan, Sushma Swaraj, Sushil Kumar Shinde, Uma Bharti, Girija Vyas, Ram Gopal Yadav and Hannah Mollah.
This committee of 31 members proposed seven major suggestions in the bill. He said that the sentence ‘not less than one third’ regarding reservation for women in this bill is not clear. The committee’s suggestion was that it should be written ‘about one third’ so that it could be clear.
Nitish Kumar had protested
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar was also a part of the 31-member committee. Opposing this bill, she had said in her dissent note, ‘The Women’s Reservation Bill talks about giving reservation to the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe women of the country. But I think OBC women should also get reservation. Therefore, OBC women should also be included in the one-third reservation mentioned in the bill. Apart from this, care should also be taken that this reservation should be in the right proportion for OBC women also.
Sharad Pawar had given a controversial statement against the bill
On 16 May 1997, the Women’s Reservation Bill was once again introduced in the Lok Sabha. But this time, voices of opposition started being raised within the ruling coalition itself to get it passed. Sharad Yadav, while arguing against the bill, had said at that time, ‘This bill will benefit only ‘parkat’ women. How will the elite urban women represent our rural women?’
This statement of Sharad Pawar had created a lot of controversy at that time. Apart from Sharad, leaders from Hindi speaking areas had strongly opposed this bill. Due to which once again this bill could not be passed.
Amidst the protests, copies of the bill were snatched and torn into pieces
In the year 1998, RJD and Samajwadi Party MPs protested strongly against this bill. The protest and uproar increased to such an extent that in the middle of the House, RJD MP Surendra Prasad Yadav snatched the copy of the bill from Lok Sabha Speaker GMC Balayogi and tore it into pieces.
On tearing the copy of the bill, he argued that he did so because Because BR Ambedkar had come in his dream and asked him to do so.
was thrown out of the house holding the collar
On December 11, 1998, once again there was a fierce battle between all the parties regarding the Women’s Reservation Bill. At that time, the then Samajwadi Party MP Daroga Prasad Saroj, who was opposing this bill, was thrown out of the House by Mamata Banerjee by his collar."text-align: justify;">In the year 2004, RJD and SP MPs opposed the bill
The Bharatiya Janata Party-led NDA government also tried to pass this bill in the years 1998, 1999, 2002 and 2003-2004, but continuous opposition from Rashtriya Janata Dal and Samajwadi Party MPs prevented the bill from being passed. Kept.
UPA government also tried to get the bill passed
The UPA government that came to power under the leadership of Congress after the fall of the Bharatiya Janata Party government in 2004 and the then Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh also tried to get the bill passed but failed.
In the year 2008, the UPA government introduced the Women’s Reservation Bill in the Rajya Sabha as the 108th Constitutional Amendment Bill. There this bill was passed with an overwhelming majority on March 9, 2010. BJP, Left parties and JDU had supported the bill.
However, Samajwadi Party and Rashtriya Janata Dal were still opposing this bill and both these parties Was part of UPA. This is the reason why the UPA government did not present this bill in the Lok Sabha. Congress feared that if it introduced the bill in the Lok Sabha, its government might be in danger.
Yogi Adityanath had also opposed this bill
In the year 2010, when the Women’s Reservation Bill was being discussed. At that time Bharatiya Janata Party had supported the bill. But currently UP CM Yogi Adityanath was against it. According to the news published in the English website Times of India, one of his articles was published in ‘Hindavi’, the mouthpiece of Yogi Adityanath’s organization Hindu Yuva Vahini. In this, he glorified women by citing the scriptures, but while opposing 33 percent reservation in the Parliament, he wrote, ‘The direct opposition to reservation may have been suppressed due to constitutional status and legal status, but due to reservation, despite the merit, There is widespread dissatisfaction in the minds of the classes and people deprived of opportunities. In such a situation, it should be our endeavor to ensure that the existing crack does not widen further nor should another crack be created.’
Once again in the year 2017, when the issue of Women’s Reservation Bill came up for discussion, Randeep Surjewala had demanded an apology from Yogi Adityanath citing the same article. Surjewala said, ‘While on one hand the country’s Prime Minister Modi talks about giving equal rights to women, on the other hand this article shows the mentality of BJP regarding women. He said that Modi and Amit Shah should condemn this article and ask their leaders to desist from such statements.
However, when the matter gained momentum, former editor of ‘Hindavi’ Pradeep Rao said in a statement that at the time this article was published Yogi Adityanath was the chief editor of this magazine. According to the former editor, this article was uploaded on the website a few years ago and along with him, Yogi also stands by the things written in it.
Now let us know what this women’s reservation bill is
Actually, this bill has a provision to reserve one-third seats for women in the Lok Sabha and Assemblies. At present there are 78 women MPs in the Lok Sabha which is 14 percent of the total MPs. Talking about Rajya Sabha, the number of women MPs here is only 32 percent whereas in many state assemblies the representation of women is less than 10 percent.