After years of dillydallying, the Women’s Reservation Bill was tabled in the Rajya Sabha on Monday, which incidentally is also the International Women's Day, where it is all set to be passed.

The Bill has been a political hot potato for more than a decade now, and its introduction has always triggered heated debates in Parliament and outside.

The path-breaking bill provides that one-third of the total number of seats in Parliament and state legislatures be reserved for women. A similar bill was introduced three times in the Lok Sabha but could not be passed due to a lack of consensus.

March 8, 2010, also saw a lot of drama, protests, attempts to shut the Bill out in Parliament, and it is to the government’s and the combined Opposition’s credit that they joined hands to usher in a revolutionary Bill that finally confers on women the right to share power.

As the drama unfolded in the Upper House, veteran journalist R Rajagopalan, vice chairman of the Media Advisory Committee of Rajya Sabha, was witness to the whole thing from the press gallery. Rajagopalan, chief of bureau of the Telugu daily Vaartha, has been covering Parliament since 1980 and is a noted commentator on Indian bureaucracy.

To discuss the Bill, its future -- it is yet to be passed in the Lok Sabha, after which it will become an Act and enforceable – Rajagopalan will appear on the Rediff Chat at 5:30 pm IST on March 8, 2010. Be there, and have your queries answered, doubts clarified!

(Due to circumstances beyond our control, date and time of chat may change)