[Reader-list] Question regarding women's reservation bill

[Rahul Asthana]

Thanks Rakesh.
I agree that women incumbents can contest from open seats - but,firstly, it is less likely that they would be given tickets by major parties,since they are already giving tickets to women in the reserved constituencies.Secondly,if they do, the balance may shift in the other direction with men not getting a chance to stand for election in 66% of the seats.
To sum up, in 66% of seats, its unlikely, though not impossible for the incumbents to stand for election ; and that I think is bad for accountability in particular and democarcy in general.It has the potential to create a big mess.
On the other hand, fixed reservation is acceptable in my opinion.

Thanks
Rahul




________________________________
From: Rakesh Iyer <rakesh.rnbdj at gmail.com>
To: Rahul Asthana <rahul_capri at yahoo.com>
Cc: Sarai Reader List <reader-list at sarai.net>
Sent: Wed, March 10, 2010 1:30:47 PM
Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Question regarding women's reservation bill

Hi Rahul

My response:

1) The reservation is rotating in the sense, that within 15 years, all seats would have been reserved at least once for women. Assume that a state has 3 governments which last their full terms. In such a case, in 15 years, there would have been 3 elections for the state assembly. In such a case, one third of the assembly seats would be reserved in say the first election, but in the next election, these seats would be de-reserved, and instead one-third of the total assembly seats (but not these dereserved ones) would be chosen for the 2nd election. In the third election, those seats which were dereserved for both the 1st and 2nd election would be reserved. 

2) Women can contest even from dereserved seats, so there is no case of incumbent not being able to contest from a seat once it is dereserved. She can contest again. There is no restriction on doing so. But what it means is that a man would not be able to be contest three continuous times in both Assembly and Parliamentary elections from the same seat. 

Rakesh