Some problems with the proposed women's reservation bill

Anybody who is seen opposing the Women's Reservation Bill today is seen as a male chauvinist and anti-woman. The bill quite simply seeks to reserve 33.33 percent of all seats in Lok Sabha and State Legislative for women.

Would we really be ensuring gender equality of women in India by enforcing this bill? The papers and the news channels in my opinion, have forgotten their duty of being fair and impartial. They are simply not presenting both sides of the picture.

The constitution of the country gave equal rights to all adults for contesting in elections. In a utopian society, around 50% of the elected representatives both at the state and the centre are expected to be women. But that's not happening in India. In the 2004 elections, less than 50 out of about 540 total Lok sabha seats were won by women candidates. This no doubt indicates that Indian women are discriminated.

But simply reserving a third of the total seats, takes away the democratic rights of about 22 crore India men from contesting in the reserved seats. This in my opinion amounts to sacrificng merit to make way for forced gender equality.

The forced reservation might do the following

1.A woman candidate does not necessarily mean better governance. It might discourage a common voter from exercising the right to franchise because of the quality of contestants presented to him/her.

2.A politician's job is to oversee the development of all sections of his/her electorate irrespective of gender, cast, creed or religion. The Bill might create an environment where elected members from those reserved constituencies are obligated to work for the development of the feminine gender only.

3.Discounts and ignores the merit of existing candidates. There are estimates that more than 50% of incumbents will have to give quit their constituencies to make way for women who may or may not be qualified enough to govern those constituencies. It also takes away the rights of about 22 crore Indian males to contest in elections forever.

4.The existing male politicians will exploit the immaturity of the Indian electorate by fielding their own wives, daughters or sisters – which does not make any difference in the quality of governance – which is the ultimate goal.

5.It has been proven beyond doubt that an increase in the number of women politicians does not necessarily mean an increase in the quality of the lives of Indian women. Indira Gandhi's tenure as Prime Minister is an example in this context.


If we want equality of women, it is important that we attack the fundamental problem. Girl child literacy and education, maternal health, effective enforcement of anti girl-child abortion practices, and a change in the mindset of most Indians about the competency of Women. If all this happens, we might start seeing good results in the future. The idea is to recognise the problem and work towards solving it. If the problem is solved, the symptoms will vanish. Inadequate representation of women in Parliament is symptom to a problem and not the problem itself.

Another weird provision in the Bill that comes to my mind, is the rotation policy for selecting the seats which to be reserved. The seats to be reserved for women will be picked from a fair lottery. This is a kind of an insult to existing women politicians who have made their way up by working hard and proving their mettle time and again.

But then, I also feel that we have to think and analyse the possible long term effects of this Bill. 60 years back, the drafters of Indian Constituency gave voting rights to every adult Indian inspite of the fact that literacy levels were a dismal 10-15 percent at the time. This universal right to vote has been shamelessly exploited by the politicians. Immature and illiterate voters have often neglected merit and have voted for caste, creed, ideology and religion. This the very reason Mayawati is UP Chief Minister :) And CPM is in power in Bengal for the last three decades. And the Gandhis have been in power since India got independence (How else could've Rajiv Gandhi become the Indian Prime Minister without any experience?) And actors and actresses have managed to get elected by beating able politicians solely on the basis of their stardom – Govinda vs Ram Naik. Let's face it. Indian electorate is immature. If you're still not convinced, How else do you explain Dr Manmohan Singh (quite unambiguously the best politician India has ever produced) failing to get elected into Lok Sabha – and that too from Delhi? But certainly, the immaturity has decreased a lot in the last one decade.

And so, despite the many visible problems, this idea of universal franchise is probably the only reason why India is still a vibrant democracy And for this, we have to appreciate the far-sightedness of the drafters of our constitution who had faith in the people of India. What I am trying to say is, the women's reservation bill maybe a bit ahead of its time and might not give results in the immediate future. But it might well the most positive development in the Indian Governance System when looked back 40-50 years hence.

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Debate - Patriotism has reduced to mere Tokenism

I presented this debate at JIVE 08, the cultural festival of Jaypee Institute. I was speaking for the motion. And no I did not win a prize but I just thought it deserves a read..

I would like to ask you a very simple question. Do you know the name of the local MP? No? You must at least know the political party he/she belongs to.. Now I am sure half the people sitting here have no idea. We don’t know because we don’t care. But if I ask you about Deepika Padukone and her boyfriends, then each one of us will have an answer.

Well the reason I asked you the above is question is this: If you consider yourself patriotic, then the first thought that should come to your mind when you think of your nation is, who are the ones ruling it? What are their credentials? Is this country in safe hands? Governance is closely related to patriotism.

But we don’t even give a damn.

One of the cleanest figures of Indian politics and the architect of a liberal India, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, himself failed to get elected to the Lok Sabha and that too from a highly educated constituency of the capital city Delhi. He had to be brought in as a member of the Rajya Sabha from the far-off state of Assam. So what does that say? We might talk big things but we do not even exercise our right to vote. We’d instead prefer to go out and watch movies when we get a holiday for general elections.

India earned her freedom after much sacrifice and bloodshed. Bhagat Singh, one of the most popular faces of the Indian Freedom struggle, gave up his life for the nation the young age of 21 years. 21 years. Today when I look around, I hardly see that kind of a passion for the country. True, India is a free nation today, true India is not in a state of war. So we don’t require revolutionaries who would sacrifice their lives at the drop of a hat. But there are so many issues plaguing us right now. According to our former president APJ Abdul Kalam, there are several factors that are a threat to our dream of becoming a super power by 2020. Corruption is one such factor. Even being a passive witness to corruption is a form of corruption. With scores of venal people around us, how many of us here feel enough is enough? How many of us actually step out of the crowd, raise our voices and do something about it?

All that we do is celebrate cricketing victories, shout slogans, wave our national flag and think that we’re patriotic.

Patriotism is a big word. We as a nation are not even fulfilling some of our most basic obligations. Our national animal, tiger is on the brink of extinction. But we don’t care. Our National Heritage, all our priceless monuments are in a state of absolute neglect. But we don’t care. Every single day, we litter our nation in the most uncivic of manners. Even when there is a dustbin in sight, we don’t have the patience to walk up to it.

This year, recruitments in the Armed Forces have been at an all time low. We are facing an acute shortage of uniformed men. Which basically means people no longer have that desire to support and defend our nation. No doubt, the current Army Chief suggested a compulsory 1 year cadetship to all Indian graduating males.

Since 1947, we have come a long way. It’s been 60 years. But my heart pains when I see that patriotism has indeed been lost somewhere in the pages of history. Patriotism has been long forgotten and all that has remained is mere tokenism.