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Silent gender war in the Union Cabinet |
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Observers say that the Government is split down the middle on the issue of the Women’s Reservation Bill and a silent gender war is simmering. UPA chairperson and Congress president Sonia Gandhi is trying hard to cut through the resistance from male Ministers and Members of Parliament to the Women’s Reservation Bill providing for 33 per cent seats for women in Parliament and State legislatures which has been in cold storage for years.
The pushing through of the domestic violence law with its draconian provisions appears to have sent a shiver down many of the male colleagues of Woman and Child Development Minister Renuka Chaudhary. The day the law came into effect last month, Renuka Chaudhary received congratulatory calls from women colleagues and citizens. But a male cabinet minister reportedly rang her up to say, “you are doing this when you do not yet have 33 per cent reservation. Imagine what you might do if you get the quota.”
Bureaucrats say the law smacks of “gender bias.” Why can’t women be punished too, for ill-treating men or other women ?
Renuka has a ready reply : where was this talk of gender bias when women could be abused without the protection of a specific law ?
The “spectre” of domestic violence law is becoming increasingly linked to Women’s Reservation Bill. The male ministers and MPs may mutter under their breath about the “madness” of the Women’s Reservation Bill; all they can do in public is parrot Sonia Gandhi. They, however, can speak their mind to Renuka. So they call her up - crack a joke or two about the domestic violence law - and portend a gloomier future once the Reservation Bill is passed.
But this has not deterred Renuka Chaudhary from planning an agenda that will make it tougher for men to get away with gender crime. Her Ministry plans to include “stalking” as a crime in the law against sexual harassment.
Sonia Gandhi is her staunchest ally; her strongest critics are male cabinet colleagues, party leaders and the babus.
At a meeting with the Home Minister, his officials told Renuka that women should dress modestly before complaining about the rise in rapes and molestation.
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