Akhilesh toes father MSY’s line on women’s quota bill

Lucknow: Even as the Opposition parties aired their concerns over the Women’s Reservation Bill during the debate in Lok Sabha on Thursday, Samajwadi Party chief and Kannauj MP Akhilesh Yadav toed party founder Mulayam Singh Yadav’s line to demand that women from the Muslim and Backward class communities be accommodated separately under the Bill. When the bill was first tabled in parliament in 1999, Mulayam had opposed it, calling it against Muslims, backwards and Dalits.In his address Akhilesh, at the outset, announced that SP was in favour of reservation for women. Socialist ideologue Ram Manohar Lohia also advocated gender justice and social justice, he said, adding that the idea only goes on to strengthen party’s commitment toward PDA - comprising Pichhade (backward classes), Dalits and Alpsankhyaks (minorities). Akhilesh, however, questioned the haste behind pushing the bill and wondered if Muslim women were included as a part of aadhi abadi (women population) that the BJP refers to. “Our demand is that women from backward and Muslim community are included in this aadhi abadi to make the reservation complete,” Akhilesh said. Participating in the debate, SP MP from Azamgarh Dharmendra Yadav, said until women from the cackward classes and Muslim community were included in the bill, SP will not support the Bill.SP’s stance in Lok Sabha on Thursday was seen as an extension of what party founder Mulayam Singh Yadav had said when the Women Reservation Bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha for the first time in 1999. Then Mulayam, too, maintained that party was not against reservation for women, but he did not approve of the form in which the Bill was then presented.“...this entire conspiracy is against Muslims, against Dalits and Backward (class),” Mulayam had said accusing the Congress and the BJP of exploitation. In his address, the SP patriarch said that by implementing the Women Reservation, the Congress and the BJP are conspiring to deprive those 90% to 95% of the people who come from the Dalit, Muslim, poor and Backward castes, reach Lok Sabha to raise the voice of the common man.Mulayam’s main premise was that in the absence of ‘quota within quote’ the benefits of the women reservation won’t trickle down to the needy. He was of the view that the bill in its original form will only benefit the modern, upper caste and privileged class women and those rural, backward and minority communities will be left out. Hence quota within quota was must to ensure adequate representation of all sections of the society. He said without this provision, the bill will only serve to keep women Backward classes and Muslim community out of the political mainstream.His son, Akhilesh Yadav, has taken the same stance now.