Let’s play it fair & square
The passion with which senior leaders like Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad and Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav opposed the idea of giving over 33 per cent of seats in Parliament to women would have been justified if they had led the way in increasing women’s participation in a more democratic manner. But the arguments that we [...]
Mandal fade-out
We are not anti-women but we want reservations for women hailing from minority and backward classes first,” Mulayam Singh Yadav chanted a familiar plaint, as he stuck by his opposition to the long-pending legislation to reserve 33 per cent of seats in legislatures for women. Meanwhile, Lalu Prasad Yadav slammed the bill as a “diversionary [...]
Marshal law
The Constitution (108th Amendment) Bill, 2008 was passed with the support of the three largest groupings in Parliament: the ruling alliance, the opposition NDA, and the Left parties. That can hardly be called an anti-democratic development, an “autocratic move”, or “tanashahi”. But that’s how those who object to the bill — primarily [...]
Sanjiv Kaura: Language Without Barriers
"We must at present do our best to form...a class of persons, Indian in blood and colour, but English in taste, in opinions, in morals, and in intellect." With these words, spoken in 1835, Lord Macaulay crystallised an imperial approach to the English language that, unfortunately, continues to work to its detriment today. The old resentments about [...]
Shifting Ground
The historic women's reservation Bill has polarised the polity and that's bound to affect the running of the UPA government at the Centre. The immediate impact of the acrimonious debate in the Rajya Sabha will be on the UPA's strength in the Lok Sabha. With the Samajwadi Party and Rashtriya Janata Dal withdrawing support to the UPA government, [...]
Block And Tackle
Fourteen years after it was first tabled, the women's reservation Bill - which faces stiff opposition from regional outfits that depend on caste vote banks for political survival - looked set to be passed fairly easily in the Rajya Sabha yesterday when the BJP and the Left pledged support. Both these parties must be commended for displaying [...]
A Milestone Moment
It would not be an exaggeration to say that history was made yesterday with the passage of the women's reservation Bill. The fundamental nature of our politics and by extension the way in which our public domain is ordered will never be the same. With Parliament and all state legislatures making space for a minimum of 33 per cent women [...]
Don’t fail the women of India
The United Progressive Alliance government's announcement of its intention to push forward the Women's Reservation Bill without any dilution in the coming week is the best political news we have had for a long time. If all goes according to plan, the long-pending Bill will be adopted by both houses of Parliament on or around March 8, which marks [...]
Vidya Subrahmaniam: Cracks in Hindutva brotherhood
Just when one thought it could not get any worse, it has. Uddhav Thackeray’s “Italian mummy-Italian Rajputra” tirade against Rahul Gandhi and his unceasing threats to Shah Rukh Khan mark a new low in the conduct of a party that has practised violence as if it was a sacred credo. While the Shiv Sena’s young leader bellows and thunders, [...]
End of a friendship
The expulsion of Amar Singh and Jaya Prada from the Samajwadi Party was an inevitable sequel to the escalating war of words between the individuals loyal to Mulayam Singh’s former confidant and the party’s current dispensation. Each side has accused the other of bringing the SP to ruin. In the litany of charges against Mr. Amar Singh, two [...]