NEW DELHI: As India turns its attention to the question of women’s representation, it is imperative to recall the diminutive yet powerful figure who first made the demand politically inescapable: CPI MP Geeta Mukherjee, fondly called ‘Geetadi’.
At a moment when the idea is finally moving from legislative promise towards implementation, remembering her is not merely an act of tribute—it is essential to understanding the long and unfinished history of the demand. She belonged to a political tradition in which ideas were shaped beyond immediate electoral arithmetic.
Long before women’s reservation entered mainstream political discourse, she recognised that the marginal presence of women in legislatures was not incidental but embedded in patriarchy.
Her intervention came in 1996, when she chaired the Joint Parliamentary Committee on the Women’s Reservation Bill. The proposal for 33% reservation in Parliament and state assemblies was, at the time, deeply contentious.
It was dismissed as impractical, disruptive, or tokenistic by almost all parties. Yet Mukherjee persisted with quiet determination and intellectual rigour. She engaged extensively with women’s organisations across the country and worked to build consensus.
A four-time MLA from Panskura Purba (1967–77) and a seven-time MP from Panskura (1980–2000), she was a central figure in the CPI and a leading force within the National Federation of Indian Women. Her influence extended well beyond office. She moved seamlessly between parliamentary debate and grassroots mobilisation. Her legacy lies in forcing politics to confront structural exclusion.