Political packages are emerging in our democracy of late, with unexpected interlinkages between power centres. One such chimera is the ‘double (or triple) engine sarkar’, a term that we have been hearing after several assembly elections. The term is used to denote a double empowerment of a state which votes for a party being backed by the all powerful Union government. Then one day we were introduced to a bunch of three major Bills that would amend the constitution, start a delimitation of states nationwide, leading to a huge bump in parliamentary seats, and last but not the least, reserve 33% seats in the new inflated parliament for nari shakti. A special session was called last week on the eve of crucial elections in three states, to pass it. The Bills if they passed the floor test, could have been very handy for the ruling coalition in consolidating a women’s vote bank. But there was a catch as the opposition shrewdly pointed out. The offer of reserving one-third seats in the legislative bodies was the attractive bait linked to the two other Bills on amending the constitution and redrawing the older boundaries of electoral constituencies nationwide. The opposition, especially the regional parties in the South objected loudly that a simultaneous passing of all three Bills could dilute and weaken their political clout significantly despite their enormous annual contribution to the GDP of India. Come to think of it, what happens when you replace an old steam engine with a far more powerful locomotive for a train hurtling along brittle old tracks that are ineptly manned (pun intended) in many areas? According to the known laws of physics, in all likeness, such a move will double the chances of an ultimate crash. So the triple engine Bill was voted down and the government was forced to withdraw them. And as expected, we see women BJP supporters playing the victim card, saying the villainous opposition has robbed women of a golden chance to share legislative power!It is notable that if all three Bills circulated by the government on April 13 were to pass the floor test and become law, the results of the caste-based census currently going on would be bypassed totally, because its results would not be available before 2031. Another strange point was instead of waiting for the Census results to initiate action on delimitation, the government decided to use the data from Census of 2011. This fast paced delimitation in 2026 would have inflated the current number of seats in the Lok Sabha from 543 to 816, of which 33% would be reserved for women. This reminded one of Thomas Kuhn’s words, “Political revolutions aim to change political institutions in ways that those institutions themselves prohibit.”Also read: Backstory | Was it a Women’s Reservation Bill or a BJP Preservation Bill? The Media Didn’t SayThe late lamented women’s reservation Bill was actually less about redefining power, but more about giving a big boost to the government’s own image as a pro-women sarkar! What is a pro-women sarkar really? Is it bringing in a favoured class of largely urban women with no clearly defined political ideology or understanding of the lives poor women in rural areas or even NCR, Bengaluru or Mumbai slums lead? For whom feminism and Marxism are the one and the same? Facts on the ground tell a different tale. Despite all the emotional speeches about “mahila sashakteekaran” – women’s empowerment – and opening of women’s studies centres in all our universities, the last two decades have not yet thrown up a feminist theory of state. The courses taught and researches done in the area do not focus on the state but go all emotional about the holy triad of Matyen-Behenen-Betiyan, “mothers, sisters and daughters”. The term political when used refers usually to the laws of the state and not a new power sharing template. Take for example the Minimum Wages Act. As the factory workers and house maids took to streets in Noida, the ugly fact reared its head: the rich owning properties worth crores are using women’s labour like blood sucking landlords. As TV cameras entered the shanties where entire families earning Rs 11,000-12,000 per month were forced to live in poverty, we saw mothers and fathers together barely earning enough to pay the high rents. And when they take to the streets, first the media blacks them out and then at the hint of vandalism, the state sends in police forces who beat up – as one eyewitness squeamishly described – the “ladies”. These images and verbal exchanges force a direct confrontation between the theory of empowering women by providing them with better earning opportunities and an actual state that continues slave wages as minimum for a ten hour work day with no break or health insurance. The state, as it emerges in these confrontations from Jamia Millia Islamia and Shaheen Bagh to Noida, is not neutral but bears a clear class-caste agenda and profile. So the idea peddled about Bill for 33% reservations had the genius of appearing to take a proactive stand on state-led welfarism while blocking poorer rural women’s path to equal power and reciprocal bargaining for wages and seats. The core ideology of the conservative Hindu family system remained intact as gender based casteist slurs were cast during electoral rallies with one man blatantly suggesting Mamata Banerjee get physically abused and they will claim compensation for her.Make no mistake, the state that was repackaging and diluting its own 2023 Women’s Reservation Bill is not gender neutral. It is essentially male-led and controlled. Many of those who support it vociferously are for the most part those who we have seen and heard demeaning women in politics verbally, physically and emotionally. Were we to believe they’ll go through a total change of heart and welcome women in the political sphere on par with themselves when many of them have been heard supporting cut backs in MGNREGA, maximum-work hours in offices and no unionising laws for women wage day workers in fields and factories? T.S. Eliot wrote, “The last act is the greatest treason. To do the right deed for the wrong reason.”A great tragedy has been averted this once but we need to be vigilant. Picture abhi baaqi hai.Saakhi is a Sunday column from Mrinal Pande, in which she writes of what she sees and also participates in. That has been her burden to bear ever since she embarked on a life as a journalist, writer, editor, author and as chairperson of Prasar Bharti. Her journey of being a witness-participant continues.