New Delhi, Aug 28 (IANS) Opposition parties on Friday lashed out at the BJP-led government after Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal said the implementation of the Nari Shakti Vandan Act is under active consideration, calling it a “drama before elections”.
However, the opposition leaders maintained that they are willing to support the implementation of the Constitution (106th Amendment) Act, 2023, commonly known as the Nari Shakti Vandan Act, at the existing Lok Sabha strength (543), “without the delimitation condition”.
This comes after Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi asking whether the government planned to convene a special session of Parliament to pass the proposed delimitation Bill. He said he was reiterating the demand after Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju reportedly indicated in a television interview that a special session could be convened.
Speaking to IANS, Shiv Sena-UBT MP Arvind Sawant accused the BJP of “lying”.
He said: “When was the Women’s Reservation Bill passed? It was passed in 2023. Today, Gen Z has stood up to protest because of such lies. Now women have also understood the truth…The BJP stands on lies.”
He recalled that the Women’s Reservation Bill was passed in 2023 and was then supported by all opposition parties.
“If they (government) really want to give reservation, they can give it based on the current 543 seats (in Lok Sabha),” he said while emphasising that even at the current strength “all members don’t get enough time to speak”.
“This drama is being done just before the Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh,” Sawant remarked.
Purnia MP Pappu Yadav also hit out at the government, calling its mindset towards women and the poor as “distorted”.
“They (government) simply do not want poor, backward and middle-class women to advance in political life. They do not believe in Babasaheb Ambedkar’s Constitution…and are not bothered about the Opposition’s consent. They are just restless about the 2029 Lok Sabha polls,” he told IANS.
Congress leader from Odisha, Arabinda Das, echoed the sentiment, saying: “The Women’s Reservation Bill was previously passed in Parliament, but it was not implemented, and now they are attempting to pass it again. If this was solely about the Women’s Reservation Act, the situation would be different. They want to link it with delimitation. What they could not achieve in the last session, they are trying to do by calling this session. They are always trying to bulldoze and sacrifice constitutional norms.”
CPI leader Annie Raja also said: “The Bill on women’s reservation was already passed in 2023. So, it is now a law, but the issue is its implementation.”
“Women are now being fooled by adding two conditions to the Bill: delimitation and Census. It has been made in a way that till the process of delimitation and Census is completed, the Women’s Reservation Bill cannot be implemented,” she told IANS.
–IANS
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