A bill that would have empowered India’s women politically was blocked on International Women’s Day by ministers of Parliament who call the legislation elitist, according the Indo-Asian News Service.
The bill was first introduced in 1996 and would have reserved one-third of legislative seats for Indian women. A dozen members of India’s upper house who oppose the bill made a scene tearing up the document and throwing the shreds at chairman Hamid Ansari when a motion was attempted.
Two regional parties with mostly Hindi supporters threatened to withdraw support from the government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh accusing it of trampling the interests of minority women. The ruling United Progress Alliance (UPA), it seems, was unprepared for the bill to fail Monday—the local media had hyped its imminent passage.
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