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Women MPs vow to make reservation a poll issue

Having been unable to get the women's reservation bill passed in Parliament, MPs and activists have decided to make it an election issue and seek commitment from each contesting candidate to prevent any detractions later.

The Communist Party of India's Geeta Mukherjee who piloted the 81st Amendment, told a meeting yesterday, ''As elections seem inevitable, it is the most opportune moment to individually approach all the MPs to get them to state their positions. These signed statements on the bill can later be used to nail an MP down in case he goes back on it.''

Agreeing with the stand, Rajya Sabha member Margaret Alva said, ''Let us not just become gongs and chatter and chatter without any groundwork.''

Though the MPs have been opposing the bill, the men voters at the grassroots favoured it, said Mukherjee. ''It was because their experience with panchayat functionaries had proved them to be better workers and less prone to corruption.''

Urging parties to fulfil their manifesto pledges and give 33 per cent tickets to women, Mukherjee said specious pleas of not having enough women were unacceptable.

The All India Trade Union Congress's Amarjit Kaur said the most important need at this juncture was to defeat the designs of keeping women away from politics which has hitherto been the main agenda of most parties.

UNI

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