By Rachel Thomas
Jim Corbett (Uttarakhand), Oct 13 (IANS) Support for reservation quota for women in parliament found its resonance on Thursday among participants at the ongoing Kumaon Literature Festival as well.
Speaking at a packed session of the festival's second edition here, women speakers flayed the stalling of the bill that grants 33 per cent reservation to women in parliament.
"Issues regarding Women's Reservation Bill need to be discussed across all parties, especially those opposing it, so that it gets passed in the Lok Sabha," said Nupur Sharma, a young leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
"It should be the responsibility of each political party to allocate one-third of their tickets to women candidates," Sharma said.
"Merely increasing the numbers alone will not do any good; there is a desperate need for good quality women leaders in the country," added author-columnist Tuhin Sinha.
She said there have been good women leaders at the regional and national levels, but the phenomenon has not trickle down much.
"Women's journey into politics should be by default and not designed, because when you reserve a particular number of seats by rotation, it will encourage more nepotism, and produce leaders without quality and may also give rise to dynasty rule," Tuhin said.
TV commentator Abhay Kumar Dubey said the passage of the Women's Reservation Bill will prove to be a game changer for women, society and the nation.
"It is high time men stop sitting on a high pedestal and explain how and what women should do in politics," said Congress spokesperson Priyanka Chaturvedi.
"The entire society is responsible for handling women's isues; it is not women politicians' responsibility alone to bring about a change in the mindset of people regarding their issues and their route to politics," Chaturvedi said.
Another session on 'In Crisis We Act' saw the participation of All India Trinamool Congress leader Dinesh Trivedi.
A session on 'My Lords, I Rest My Case' witnessed participation of Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Supreme Court Justice A.K. Sikri, with the latter discussing how judiciary influences literature and how writing of judgments is drawn from the literary world.
In the session on 'A Compulsive Questionnaire," Carnatic musician-cum-author T.M. Krishna spoke.
"Artistes are now bent upon performing in such a manner that it satisfies everybody in the audience; this is merely marketing of art and not sharing, which is the original intention of art," he said.
(Rachel V.Thomas is in Jim Corbett at the invitation of the Kumaon Literature Festival organisers. She can be contacted at rachel.t@ians.in)
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