The SP is set to demand the junking of the controversial quota bill, which proposes 33% reservation in legislatures, if it agrees to bail out the government after the Left walks out of the UPA’s embrace. Mulayam’s likely success will also mark one of the favourite issues of Sonia Gandhi—women’s quota Bill—being consigned to the backseat for the deal that has emerged as the priority with PM Manmohan Singh.
    While the Left made a strong pitch for reserving seats in legislatures for women, Mulayam is dead against the proposal. The party had, in fact, taken serious exception to the Left activism for introduction of the proposed legislation in the Budget session. The SP anger over the Left unilateralism was by misread by the CPM as limited to quota, not realising that the Bill could turn out to be one of the pretexts for Mulayam to break away from the Left on the deal. The SP requires a strong narrative to explain its dramatic about-turn on the deal. Mulayam, however, has consistently opposed the women’s quota, closing ranks with other OBC outfits like Lalu Prasad’s RJD to stop successive governments since 1997 to fulfil their pledge to bring in the law for the purpose.
    The antagonists of the women’s quota are asking for a “quota-within-quota” for OBCs and Muslims. The demand is fraught with the risk of becoming the precedent for a clamour for communal and caste-based reservations in legislatures. But they justify their anti-women’s quota plank, saying that a “general” quota would favour the upper caste women who are better placed to avail of the opportunity, and reverse the gains that OBCs have made over the years to a higher representation in legislatures.
    The concert is not going to spare any effort to prevent the government from enacting the law. In fact, the Congress, in case it still wants to take the last sigh at the quota, may find Mulayam a bigger stumbling block once he is inside the pro-UPA tent. <<back