Saakhi: The Right Deed for the Wrong Reason |
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Political packages are emerging in our democracy of late, with unexpected interlinkages between power centres. One such chimera is the ‘double (or triple) engine sarkar’, a term that we have been hearing after several assembly elections. The term is used to denote a double empowerment of a state which votes for a party being backed by the all powerful Union government. Then one day we were introduced to a bunch of three major Bills that would amend the constitution, start a delimitation of states nationwide, leading to a huge bump in parliamentary seats, and last but not the least, reserve 33% seats in the new inflated parliament for nari shakti. A special session was called last week on the eve of crucial elections in three states, to pass it.
The Bills if they passed the floor test, could have been very handy for the ruling coalition in consolidating a women’s vote bank. But there was a catch as the opposition shrewdly pointed out. The offer of reserving one-third seats in the legislative bodies was the attractive bait linked to the two other Bills on amending the constitution and redrawing the older boundaries of electoral constituencies nationwide. The opposition, especially the regional parties in the South objected loudly that a simultaneous passing of all three Bills could dilute and weaken their political clout significantly despite their enormous annual contribution to the GDP of India. Come to think of it, what happens when you replace an old steam engine with a far more powerful locomotive for a train hurtling along brittle old tracks that are ineptly manned (pun intended) in many areas? According........