Fair is foul
It would have been a revolutionary bill and a first for this part of the world. But whoever heard of parliamentarians voluntarily giving up their privileges? The Women´s Bill, reserving a third of the seats in Parliament and legislative assemblies for women, was cleverly scuttled by the very parties overtly supporting it.
Outwardly, of course, it was the two Yadav ex-chief ministers whose hooliganism won the day. Both Laloo Prasad Yadav and Mulayam Singh Yadav encouraged their supporters to create pandemonium in the House when the bill was introduced. One of them even went so far as to grab the bill, tear it up and hurl it at the treasury benches. The house was adjourned, an all-party meeting called in Parliament and the bill deferred "for the time being". This effectively has put it in cold storage.