This is what Sharad Joshi had to say on the issue of women’s reservation. The text below is a selection of key remarks made by him in the Rajya Sabha on 9 March 2010.
Political empowerment for women? – a thumping yes, yes, yes. Reservation? – a fairly big question mark. And reservation with rotation and lottery system? – an absolute No, No, No.
…
Sir, Hon. Mishra of the BSP raised the question: Where does this 33 per cent come from? This is the genesis of 33 per cent. Sir, the question is: Has the reservation, actually, ever given benefit to any of the targeted communities? And our experience is not very happy. This problem could have easily been solved by a system of proportional representation in the Party Listing system that would have taken care of the entire set of problems created by reservation. And, the scenes that we have witnessed in the last two days could have also been avoided had we included the proportional representation system rather than the first-past-the-post system.
Lastly, coming to the lottery-cum-rotation system, this is not a minor defect. I still insist that this is a fatal defect in the system. Here, we choose a constituency first, and in that constituency, it is very likely that there may not be an enthusiastic woman candidate. On the other hand, it is likely that a man has nursed that constituency for some time. This will unnecessarily create bitterness against the women’s movement.
Sir, secondly, it is also likely that this opportunity will be used by established leaders for pushing the candidature of their family members which is not the purpose of this Bill at all. Sir, once the woman is elected, she would know that she does not stand a chance of getting the ‘woman reserved constituency’ again. Therefore, she would not be equally enthusiastic about nursing the constituency. Similarly, the men candidates who get elected would also have doubts about their getting to contest that election once again from the constituency because the chances that it will be available to them would be only 50:50. Under these circumstances, Sir, the major effect will be that all the constituencies will be badly nursed.
And, lastly, Sir, this kind of reservation system will make it impossible for any House to have more than 33 per cent repeaters at any time. So, we will lack the experienced people in the Legislatures and the Parliament. That could prove to be fatal for the Indian Democracy. Thank you, Sir.”
page 270-71, Talking to an Empty Room: Sharad Joshi in Rajya Sabha
Here is Sharad Joshi talking on the issue in a meet with journalists.