EC’s proposal on women’s quota within parties must be accepted: Gill

Former Chief Election Commissioner and Congress MP M S Gill on Sunday said political parties should implement the Election Commission’s proposal...

Former Chief Election Commissioner and Congress MP M S Gill on Sunday said political parties should implement the Election Commission’s proposal that 33 per cent of all party posts are earmarked for women. Gill’s demand comes closely on the heels of BJP too making a similar demand on Saturday. The former Chief Election Commissioner said that it is the best possible solution under the circumstances.

“This issue is bigger than any political party and it is high time that political parties implement the EC’s proposal. There’s lack of adequate space in the political process for the women,” he said.

Gill as CEC in April 2000 circulated a note among the political parties for arriving at a consensus on EC’s suggestion of amending the Representation of Peoples Act (RPA) to make it compulsory for all recognised political parties to fix a certain number of seats for women candidates in state and national elections. “In the EC’s view, the issue needs to be looked into from a wider perspective. The objective must remain to achieve a genuinely active participation of women in the political process. Instead of following the reservation route, with the possibility of further internal reservations, a simple amendment of RPA — requiring the political parties to fix a certain percentage of seats for women candidates — will solve the problem. The EC has observed that this mechanism of ensuring a minimum percentage of women candidates has worked well in some European countries,” the note stated.

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“I was very clear that we must enhance women’s representation in state legislatures and the parliament which has remained a miserable 6 to 8 per cent since Independence. The EC, at that time, tried to convince all political parties that by simple amendment in the RPA, we can ensure adequate representation of women in our legislative bodies and involve them in decision making process at all levels. This can be achieved without any controversy and at the same time ensure flexibility to chose women candidates from the fixed quota, eliminating any controversy on further internal reservations. When after all these years the political parties could not arrive on any consensus on the Women’s Reservation Bill, the time has come to give a serious thought to ensuring women’s reservation through means other than reservation. This would also expose those parties which are per se opposed to giving any seats to women candidates,” said Gill.

When asked whether being a member of the Congress, his views would not be seen as opposed to that of his party, which has not taken any stand till now, Gill said that though he is bound to support the official line of the party, he will try to convince the party to accept the proposal.