The Samajwadi Party said not a single male would be elected to the Lok Sabha ten years after the Women's Reservation Bill came into force and advocated a quota for the fair sex within political parties. "Once the bill comes into force, not a single male would be elected to the Lok Sabha after ten years as elected women would not leave their seats, nor will the political parties be in a position to replace them," Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav said addressing a function to mark Ram Manohar Lohia's birth centenaryin Lucknow.
Advocating reservation for women within political parties instead, Yadav said it should be made mandatory for them to give 15 per cent tickets to women. "If this limit is increased by few more per cent we have no objection over it," he said and termed the legislation passed in the Rajya Sabha as "an international conspiracy to ensure that not a single male member enters the Lok Sabha."
Also dubbing the bill as a conspiracy against Muslims, the SP leader said his party was not against reservation to women, but it was not ready to accept the bill in its present form. He also alleged that the UPA "forcibly" presented the bill in Parliament to divert people's attention from the price rise issue. "The country's situation is turning worse, but the central government is not ready to change its policies. The Women Reservation Bill was presented forcibly in the Rajya Sabha only to distract people's attention from price rise issue," he said. "If there was any opposition to the bill, then the government should have listened to it, instead seven opposition members were suspended indefinitely from the Rajya Sabha," the SP supremo said.
Yadav said that he was hopeful that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh would give a reply in the Parliament on the price rise issue. "It was his responsibility that if opposition has raised some questions, he (Manmohan Singh) should have answered them, but he did not give any answer," he said. The SP supremo also criticised the Centre for "failing to act against China", which he alleged was "intruding into Indian boundaries". "I have repeated this again and again that Pakistan is not a threat to India, the real threat comes from China, but the centre lacks courage to act," he alleged.
