Sushma opposes quota within quota

NEW DELHI: Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj has declared that the BJP would stoutly oppose sub-quota for minorities and the OBCs within the Women’s Reservation Bill. The Constitution does not provide for such quota to either the OBCs or to the minorities. Besides, the party is opposed to religion-based reservations.

The BJP is watching the discomfiture of the government, which is struggling to hammer out a consensus on the contentious Bill.

Sushma made it clear that while the party is committed to supporting the Bill in its present form, it would not countenance its passage with the deployment of the marshals, like it was done in the Rajya Sabha. “It is a Bill that heralds social revolution and if it is passed under the shadow of the marshals, it would be tainted,” she said. The government should build a consensus, so that it does not have to resort to deployment of the marshals, she added.

As an alternative, Sushma said the party was even willing to support the Election Commission proposal to amend the Representation of People’s Act, making it binding on political parties to give quota for women candidates in ticket-distribution.

She even offered to consider with an ‘open mind’ any other proposal that the government may like to suggest to the political parties. While no formal proposal has been made yet, there are suggestions of lowering the quota from 33 percent to about 20-25 percent.

The BJP wants to be seen as a co-architect and equal claimant for the Bill. It was the BJP, that had first brought women’s quota on to the party’s agenda in the 1990s and it had even provided 33 percent reservation for women in organisational posts.

The party should not allow the Congress to walk away with credit for the passage of the Bill.