Having a woman Lok Sabha speaker for the first time!
Ruhi Tewari -
Tuesday, June 02, 2009 6:38 PM
The 15th Lok Sabha is likely to witness some hilarious as well as embarrassing scenes with Meira Kumar being nominated as the first ever woman speaker. So used to referring to the speaker as ‘Mr. speaker sir', members of this House are surely going to take time to get accustomed to the new nomenclature of madam speaker!
Parliament is likely to witness a lot of goof ups and funny moments when MPs, particularly the old-timers, falter in addressing the speaker, ending up calling her speaker sir instead! Though the saving grace is that a woman speaker is ordinarily referred to as madam speaker and not speaker ma'am. MPs would perhaps be able to roll off madam speaker much more easily. Instead, if they start with the word speaker they might end with sir so to pre-empt that situation, it is safer to start with the salutation and end with the designation!
Meanwhile, Meira Kumar's nomination and the predictable unanimous election as the speaker is being hailed as a milestone moment in Indian democracy, marking the breaking of a glass ceiling and giving a boost to the empowerment message. Further, it is being said the choice would facilitate the challenging task of enacting the women's quota in the legislature, apart from strengthening the social message of gender equality.
However, the point about a woman being the speaker assisting the process of enacting the women's reservation bill sounds nothing but dubious. In fact, while Kumar's elevation to the speaker's post is a welcome development for various reasons (She is a dalit and a woman), it has absolutely nothing to do with political parties' intention of getting the bill passed.
The speaker can do absolutely nothing in this regard. He/she is like an umpire and cannot do anything till one of the players, i.e. one of the political parties, seriously decides that they want to bring it into play. As somebody recently put it, "Would Scotland have a chance of winning the T-20 World Cup, if in all their matches the umpire was Scottish?"
It is the political parties and leaders who have to display the will to pass the bill and that is the something they haven't done in this decade since the bill was first introduced in Parliament. In 1996, 1998 and 1999, Constitution Amendment bills were introduced to reserve seats for women in Parliament and state legislative assemblies. A Joint Committee of Parliament examined the 1996 Bill. However, all three bills lapsed with the dissolution of their respective Lok Sabhas. The bill was again introduced in the Rajya Sabha last year, to prevent it from lapsing, perhaps an indication of a heightened sense of commitment to the cause.
So while we rejoice and celebrate the nomination of a woman as the Lok Sabha speaker- the first ever in India, let us not get swayed by misleading statements being made by political parties about Meira Kumar's nomination signifying a step forward in the enactment of women's quota in Parliament. Oh, and yes, let's look forward to some fun, slip-ups and red faces in the initial days of this Lok Sabha when ‘madam speaker' might be addressed as ‘Mr. speaker sir'!