Women’S Reservation Bill: PM Modi says opposition backed women’s quota bill reluctantly; ‘cruel joke played on women’ retorts Congress | India News

NEW DELHI: The women’s reservation bill has just been passed in a special session of Parliament with unprecedented unanimity. However, that has not put an end to the politics over the issue.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi led the BJP attack and said the opposition parties supported the Bill in Parliament “reluctantly” as there was no way out. He also warned that if given an opportunity, they will backtrack on the legislation. The Congress, on the other hand, alleged that the Narendra Modi government was unwilling to implement the Women’s Reservation Bill and only wanted to showcase it as an election gimmick.
The 128th Constitution amendment bill called the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, will reserve one-third of the seats in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies for women. It will be implemented after a delimitation exercise to redraw parliamentary and assembly constituencies based on the census, which the government has said will be commissioned next year.
Prime Minister Modi, who held rallies in poll-bound Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, hit out at the opposition allies and said they were staunch opponents of women’s reservation.
“The Congress and its allies in the ‘ghamandia’ (arrogant) bloc (INDIA) supported the Women’s Reservation Bill out of compulsion and hesitation as they understood the power of ‘nari shakti’. Its passage (in Parliament) became possible as ‘Modi hai to Mumkin hai’. Modi means the guarantee of fulfilling guarantees,” the Prime Minister said.
He said that women should remain alert against the efforts to divide them and added the opposition will try to find chinks in this bill.
The opposition parties have been demanding reservation within reservation for the OBC women.
‘BJP agenda is wait for your rights but vote for us now’
The Congress also hit back at the BJP. Former party chief Rahul Gandhi demanded immediate implementation of the Women’s Reservation Bill and said it can be done with the existing number of seats in the Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabhas.
AICC spokesperson Mahima Singh said the Women’s Reservation Bill suits the ruling party politically and gets them headlines but its implementation does not suit the party’s ‘Manuwadi’ ideology (thought process based on contents of the Hindu text Manusmriti).
She said, “Though the Women’s Reservation Bill has been passed by both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, it cannot be implemented till the next census is completed and this is typical of the BJP’s agenda of “wait for your rights but vote for us now. Why has Prime Minister Narendra Modi played the cruel joke on the women of this country as he has asked us to wait yet again, to claim our political right of representation?’
Asking the BJP to answer as to what is the logical link between census, delimitation and reservation, she said,
‘Did it take BJP nine years to hastily bring out this bill by just changing its name, as everything else remains the same but it seems that the BJP’s message to the women of the country is wait for your rights but vote for us now.’
The Congress spokesperson further alleged that the BJP is not interested in securing political space for women and it was for this reason in 1989, BJP leaders late Atal Bihari Vajpayee and L K Advani had opposed the idea of 33 per cent reservation for women in local bodies, a bill envisioned by then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi that was passed in the Lok Sabha but fell short of seven votes in the Rajya Sabha but was realised by P V Narsimha Rao in 1992.
Congress national spokesperson Shama Mohammad called the women’s reservation bill BJP’s ‘biggest jumla’ in the last nine years.
“If Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the government were serious about the issue, they would have implemented reservation for women from the 2024 Lok Sabha polls,” she said and added “as of now, it is indefinite and we do not know when (it will be implemented).”
Clearly, the Women’s Reservation Bill will continue to dominate the political discourse with political parties going all out to take credit for the historic legislation and also to discredit their rivals as much as they can.
(With inputs from agencies)