The Buddha and the Women's Bill

So I am in a huge minority here with no one for company except Lalu, Mulayam and Sharad- the three Yadavs. Just about everyone I speak to about the Women’s Reservation Bill is all in support of the historic piece of legislation.

However let me start of with a story I have heard but have no clue whether it is true or not.

Gautama Buddha was sitting deep in thought beneath a huge tree in a very forested part of ancient Bihar. Seeing the serenity on his face, a tribal came close to him and waited with folded hands for the Enlightened One to open his eyes and come out of the meditational pause. The One soon did, looked at the tribal and smiled.

The tribal asked the One if he could join him. The One asked why?

Tribal: I find an amazing peace in your presence. I have seen animals walk past you almost in reverence. I fear the animals in the forest that I stay in. I too want that serenity.

The One: Are you happy with your family?

Tribal: Yes I am. I have a wonderful wife who cooks for my children and me. My children love to play with me. I love to bring in food for them from the forest.

Even as the tribal and the Enlightened One were talking, a wild boar sauntered through the thick undergrowth. The tribal, for the first time, saw his concentration break as he eyed the boar and slowly found his arm reaching for the arrows in his quiver. Buddha smiled.

The One: You like hunting?

Tribal: Yes. I love to see the joy with which my children crowd around the pot when my wife is cooking the meat.

The One: But that boar might also be out to replenish itself so that it can feed the piglets back in its cave? What about them?

The tribal started thinking and said: But what about my children? Don’t they need food?

The One: Do you grow trees?
Tribal: No

The One: Do you cut them?
Tribal: Yes

The One: Do trees bear fruits?
Tribal: Yes

The One: Do your children love fruits?
Tribal: Yes

The One: Then plant trees. Let the trees bear fruits. Eat that. Let the boar live. The lack of ways is not because there is no other way but because of the lack of thought, the lack of search.

The tribal was deeply touched. But he still wanted to go along with the Enlightened One. The Buddha told him that he wills that no one covet anything, desire anything, harm anything, and injure anything.

The One: Would you be able to follow it without hurting your wife and your children dependent on you?

Tribal: No my Lord.

The One: Then you would be unhappy following my law, isn’t it?
Tribal: Yes my Lord.

The One then told the tribal the core of every law that was ever made by powers divine or by humankind.

One: No law that makes another unhappy is ever a just law. Law is for the happiness of everybody. My laws cannot change you but your change can make my laws. That is the essence.

Well coming back to the Women’s Bill. I think the last sentence is what it is all about.
We need to change because the law- the Bill- cannot change us.

Let me give an example:
In a very prosperous industrial town in Jharkhand, an honest, benevolent and hugely successful manager stood for elections against a woman who had got the ticket because her husband was caught taking a bribe to support the ruling party during a vote of confidence in Parliament. Everyone thought the manager- a legend for running a 72000-people strong company superbly for almost half a century- would win hands down. When the results were counted, the manager had been trounced by the largest margin ever for that industrial town. The woman spent the next five years in Parliament never ever having raised any question or taken part in any debate. Russi Mody never stood for elections ever again. Abha Mahato never ever got a ticket again.

In Pune, a bureaucrat who fearlessly fought the land mafia, nipped corruption in the municipality, stood for elections against an old timer, a typical politician if you understand what I mean by that. The result? The bureaucrat lost his deposit. The politician continues to run his constituency and several sports associations he is associated like his personal fiefdom.
Moral of the story: If we vote for the right persons, for the right values, for the right principles, we would never ever need reservations. To say that a particular piece of work can be done best by men or by women is a fallacy. It can only be done best by those who want to do it well. No law can ever change that fundamental truth. If our system remains the way it is, instead of a corrupt Parliament with an overwhelming majority of men, we will have a corrupt Parliament with a third of it women. Is that the difference we seek?