I would like to share two contrasting scenarios which took place on 8th March,the centenary of International Women's day.One was disappointing where as the other was heart warming.As we all know,women's quota bill was supposed to get passed in RajyaSabha yesterday but all thanks to UPA,NDA and left's coalition.It seems they had prepared hard along with SP and RJD for adjourning the bill.Such a major setback for the quota drive,that too unexpected one.I feel the alliance had no idea about the roughness of the Mulayam carpet on which they were planning to saunter.
Moving to Oscars,Kathryn Bigelow became the first woman to win an Oscar for Best Director.I was amused to know that no woman had done it in 82 years history of Oscars.The other strong contender was James Cameron,the Avtar director and her ex-husband.According to me,James Cameron was the most luckiest person as he got the best stage to lose to his wife.I hope,Kathryn's locking with Oscars wont hurt Mr.Cameron rather it will erase the differences between the two.
Mar
9
Posted by
Dr.Prajakt Mahajan
6 comments:
i loved the title...and the rest is even better...
A landmark law that would reserve a third of all seats in India's parliament for women cleared its first hurdle on Tuesday when members of the upper house approved it after a rancorous debate.
The bill won the backing of 186 of the 248 members of the upper Rajya Sabha chamber, more than the two-thirds majority needed for the draft legislation which would result in a constitutional change.
This is historic event in Indian politics as no other issue has got this much backing in past.
May be today we can say,"India is changing for Better."
First of all, I do not understand why do women demand equality and also fight for reservation. This was quoted by one of my FEMALE friends. How true! I'm not being a misogynist here, but a practical thinker. We do have women of the likes Sonia Gandhi, Sushma Swaraj, Brinda Karat at the helm of Indian politics. We've had women in the roles of Prime Minister, President, LS Speaker, Governor. Do we really need the reservation for women in politics? By reserving seats for women, I fear we're going to have more number of puppets like Rabri Devi in the parliament and the state legislatures.
Instead of opposing the bill on such valid points, I was utterly surprised to see RJD,SP,BSP opposing the bill because they want further quotas for their own constituencies (OBCs, Muslims and Dalits) within the 33 per cent women’s quota. Are they opposing the bill just for the sake of it?
@ Kapil:Unfortunately those are the only few we have,Kapil.I agree, there shouldn't be any place for puppets but what we can do is encourage females to get into politics.Infact that is the motto of this bill.Receding away from the reservations should be the norm once results expected are achieved.Like,reservation for OBC,SC and ST was meant for uplifting those casts but when we have succeded in it,Ifeel,its time to revert back to policy of no reservations based on casts.I strongly believe that these amendments are ways to brighter future not the future.The bottom line I would like to put is,if reservations were made for various casts in 1950 why not for women constituting 50% of indian population?
The intent of the bill might be good but I fear it has fallen in the wrong hands. Congress/BJP have been harping on this issue since more than 10 yrs now. If they really cared abt women, why haven't they given 33% of the party tickets to women in the elections since then. They couldn't, coz there weren't/aren't enough no. of female candidates qualified to be given tickets. Instead of forcing not-so-good candidates in the parliament, one has to solve the issue at the grass root level. How can one expect to have enough no. of female candidates in the country where female foeticide rate is alarmingly high...where women r denied basic education...where crimes related to dowry r still good in number... My point is that forcing changes at the top level doesn't solve the issue at hand, rather aggravates it in most of the cases. Strong rules must be enforced at the grass root level.
Very true..Completely agree..The start is definitely not from the best of starting points but its a start though seeming quite superficial.
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