Billed for the Future....

Finally, after a grand Tamasha in Parliament, the Women's Reservation Bill has been passed in the Rajya Sabha.

The big question everyone is asking is whether this is really a big deal or not?

We are not talking of the fuss created by the Yadav trio.

On the way to office today, I heard the very interesting Rajesh Tambe, a guest speaker on Meow 104.8 FM say that the bill will perpetrate dynastic politics. It could result in proxy candidates being put up on the electoral front.

True, all that could be true. It is quite likely all this would happen.

After all, it had happened in the past.

Indira Gandhi was propped up as the "Gungi Gudiya" by power centres in the Congress after Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri passed away in 1966. But 5 years later, after the decisive victory in 1971 war, she was labelled as "Durga", that too in Parliament, by none other than Atal Behari Vajpayee.

I am no fan of the Lalu Prasad Yadav clan, but Rabri Devi did manage to achieve quite a transformation in the three terms that she had as the Chief Minister of Bihar.

Reservation for women is not new. Women have had this privilege for some years now in the village Panchayat elections. And some newspapers say that it has been quite a success, with a cleaner, less corrupt and action oriented style of functioning.

We in the corporate world have seen successful women professionals, though one often hears snide comments and knows "visible" glass ceilings exist.

But the Yadav trio seem to be worse than them....

And what Mr. Tambe said could be true for 5, 10 or 15 years, but surely women lawmakers will catch up with time, like the way they did in the Panchayats.

This could be an epochal moment in our history and our women lawmakers are certainly billed for the future...