Unseemly Dissent

IT is hardly surprising that the women's reservation bill, which in consequence will unsettle the complaisance of patriarchal systems and culture, should have produced such sharp dissensions within parties. Equally unsurprising is the fact that it has garnered women's support cutting across party lines, barring exceptions. Witness the ugly scene created in parliament by the Janata Dal leader Sharad Yadav during the debate on the women's reservation bill. Not only did it betray an antiquated social attitude towards women that is peculiar to a certain class of politicians, but also echoes certain debates of the pre-independence days when demands for minority and caste-based separate electorates were perceived as threats to divide the anti-imperialist movement.