Jammu, Sep 26: Congress on Tuesday said the BJP has made the Women’s Reservation Bill a “political jumla”.
The Congress National Spokesperson Dr Shama Mohamed while addressing the media persons said Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants to project himself as a champion of women.
“The reality is that if there is a party that has been the biggest proponent of women’s empowerment, it is the Congress,” she said.
Shama said, “It was in 1989 that then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi introduced 33% reservation of seats for women in Panchayati Raj Institutions. In that same year, he introduced a law reserving 33% of seats in local bodies for women. However, when the bill was introduced, it was none other than BJP who opposed it vehemently. BJP veterans like Lal Krishna Advani, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Jaswant Singh and Ram Jethmalani voted against the bill. The bill sailed through in Lok Sabha but failed in Rajya Sabha by only 7 votes. Finally, in 1992, the Congress under P V Narasimha Rao who successfully implemented 33% reservation of seats for women in Panchayati Raj Institutions.”
“In December of the same year, Narasimha Rao championed the passage of the 73rd and 74th amendments to the Constitution, which reserved one-third of seats for women in Panchayati Raj institutions and offices of the chairperson at all levels of Panchayati Raj institutions, and in urban local bodies respectively. In several states, seats were reserved for women within the quotas for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and Other Backward Classes (OBCs),” she added.
The Congress spokesperson said it is due to the “inclusive vision” of Rajiv Gandhi that 15 lakh women, which is around 40 percent of elected representatives in India, are empowered today. In some states, like my state of Kerala, the reservation has gone up to 50 percent, she claimed.
Dr Shama said the BJP had promised to bring in Women’s Reservation in both their 2014 and 2019 manifestos. “In 2016, Congress President Sonia Gandhi demanded that the Modi government pass the Women’s Reservation Bill in the Lok Sabha. Again, she wrote to PM Modi in 2017. In addition, Rahul Gandhi also wrote to PM Modi in July 2018. When this bill was passed in the Rajya Sabha with the support of the BJP, the then leader of the opposition, Arun Jaitley ji, called the passage of the bill “historic and momentous”. Why then, did PM Modi ignore all these appeals to pass the Bill?” she said.
By introducing a “half-baked” and “insincere” Women’s Reservation Bill, the BJP government has effectively hoodwinked the women of this country, the Congress spokesperson said, adding that the BJP has already delayed introducing the bill for 9 and a half years.
“The caveats mentioned in the bill will ensure that the bill is held up for several more years. On behalf of the women of this country, the Congress demands that the bill be implemented sincerely, immediately, and unconditionally,” she said.
