Sharad Yadav seeks consensus on Women's Bill

Tara Shankar Sahay in New Delhi

Janata Dal working president Sharad Yadav says no whip should be issued while voting on the Women's Bill, which seeks to have 33 per cent reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and state legislatures.

Yadav, who was in the forefront of the opposition to the introduction of the BIll in Parliament last week, said he favoured proportional representation to women from the four sections -- the bhadrajan (upper castes), backwards, dalits and minorities.

Claiming that Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and Samajwadi Party MPs were backing him, he said the move by upper caste MPs to issue a whip on the vote was ill-advised. Yadav said he has told the Lok Sabha Speaker that such whips should not be allowed, considering what happened during the Mandal agitation over reservations for the backward communities.

"If you want consensus on the issue, then there be voting by consensus," he said, adding that it was time that the weaker sections were given their legitimate right. He said the weaker sections would not tolerate the upper castes dominating their socially backward counterparts. But he welcomed Prime Minister I K Gujral's call for a national debate on the Bill.

He criticised the move by some Lok Sabha members to hurry through the discussion on the Bill, saying leaders of the weaker sections should be allowed to speak on the issue.

Yadav went on the defensive when women reporters asked him why the Janata Dal itself had not reserved 33 per cent of its seats in legislatures for its women members. He said that while his party had not been able to give the desired percentage to women members, it would be done now.

Asked if he was raising the issue to put pressure on the prime minister so that Gujral goes slow on the investigations into the fodder scam involving Laloo Prasad Yadav, Sharad Yadav said, "Please, don't give any uncalled for twist to the matter. It is a serious issue."

Political observers feel Sharad Yadav is trying to gain some political mileage from the Women's Bill to improve his support among the backward castes. They say Yadav thinks this is the right time to move since the Bihar chief minister is preoccupied with fending off charges levelled at him in the fodder scam.