BJP had opposed women’s bill brought during Manmohan’s time: Cong

A women's reservation bill, which had a sub-quota for SCs and STs, was brought by the previous Manmohan Singh government but met with opposition from the BJP.

Patna: A women’s reservation bill, which had a sub-quota for SCs and STs, was brought by the previous Manmohan Singh government but met with opposition from the BJP, the Congress alleged here on Monday.

AICC spokesperson Sujata Paul made the statement at a press conference here at the headquarters of the Bihar Congress.

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She said that reservation for women was “first envisaged by late Rajiv Gandhi who spoke of 33 per cent quotas in Panchayats during his prime ministership. Implementation happened in 1992, under another Congress government headed by P V Narasimha Rao”.

“In 2010, the Manmohan Singh government came out with a comprehensive (vrihat) bill on women’s reservation. It had a provision for sub-quotas for those belonging to SCs and STs. It got passed in the Rajya Sabha. But, in Lok Sabha, the BJP, which then had stalwarts like late Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Lal Krishna Advani refused to support it,” the Congress spokesperson alleged.

Notably, the 2010 bill could not be brought into the Lok Sabha for vote and lapsed.

However, Paul claimed that the latest bill betrayed the Narendra Modi government’s “doubtful intentions (neeyat mein khot)” and that the ruling BJP “lacked the credibility to be reckoned as a champion of the cause of women’s empowerment”.

“I am reminded of charges of sexual offences against BJP leaders like Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, Kuldeep Singh Sengar and former Union Minister Chinmayanand.

“When the BJP ruled Himachal Pradesh, the son of one of its MLAs was accused of rape and murder of a hotel maid. The party never spoke out against any of these people”, Paul alleged.

She said the Congress would “expose the Modi government’s duplicity” before the nation and “continue to fight till women get their due”.

Speaking at the same press conference, BPCC chief Akhilesh Prasad Singh said all parties supported the latest bill hoping that it would be passed before the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

“But, we realised that we have been cheated (humare saath chhal hua) when we learnt that its implementation would be after census and delimitation,” he said.

“Moreover, the bill contained no special provisions for women of weaker sections. The AICC, therefore, decided to expose the Modi government by sending spokespersons to every state,” Singh added.

The watershed bill to reserve one-third of seats in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies for women received the Parliamentary nod recently as the Rajya Sabha voted unanimously in favour of it. Unlike the Lok Sabha, where two of the 456 MPs present in the House had voted against the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, all the 214 lawmakers present in the Rajya Sabha voted in its favour. The 128th Constitution amendment bill, referred to as the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, will now require the approval of a majority of state assemblies. It will be implemented after a delimitation exercise to redraw parliamentary and assembly constituencies based on census which the government has said will be commissioned next year.