Congress president Sonia Gandhi has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, urging him to get the long-pending Women’s Reservation Bill passed in the Lok Sabha, taking advantage of the majority the BJP enjoys in the House.
This comes at a time when there is speculation that Mr. Modi is planning to bring the Bill, possibly in a changed format, to try and woo the women’s constituency.
Ms. Gandhi, who worked very hard to get the Bill passed during the United Progressive Alliance’s (UPA) tenure, party sources say, is, therefore, trying to pre-empt any such effort by the BJP. The UPA succeeded in getting the Bill passed in the Rajya Sabha on March 9, 2010.
In her letter, Ms. Gandhi assured Mr. Modi of her party’s support to the law which, she said, would be a significant step forward in the empowerment of women.
“I am writing to request you to take advantage of your majority in the Lok Sabha to now get the Women’s Reservation Bill passed in the Lower House as well,” Ms. Gandhi said in the letter, dated September 20.
At a press conference in New Delhi, the new Congress women’s wing chief, Sushmita Dev, questioned the alleged delay by the government in ensuring the passage of the Bill in the Lok Sabha. The BJP, she said, should show that its commitment towards legislation is not mere “symbolism”.
Mr. Modi must assure the country’s women that the Bill would be passed soon so that in the next general elections, it could be implemented, she said, pointing out that given the work that will have to be done once the Bill is passed, the government should get going with the business “right now”.
Reading out Ms. Gandhi’s letter, Ms. Dev said, “The question we ask Modi ji after three years of the BJP coming to power is: why the delay?”
In her letter, Ms. Gandhi recalled that the Congress and its late leader Rajiv Gandhi had first suggested quotas for women in panchayats and municipal bodies through Constitution amendment bills.
Ms. Gandhi said the Bills were “thwarted” by the Opposition in 1989, but were passed by both the Houses of Parliament in 1993.
Answering a question on why the Congress did not take the matter up with the government after the BJP came into power, Ms. Dev said the issue was flagged on several occasions, including during debates on the floor of the House.
Recalling that Vice-President M. Venkaiah Naidu, as Parliamentary Affairs Minister, had said the government had received several letters from public representatives and NGOs pressing for the passing of the Bill, she said the government too was “discussing and seriously thinking” about the Bill.
“Once a Parliamentary Affairs minister makes that statement on the floor of the Lok Sabha, and if Sonia Gandhi ji gives him six months or a year to implement that, I will say it was her faith in the government’s motive. But this did not happen,” she said.
Former Mahila Congress chief Shobha Oza seconded Ms, Dev, saying the Congress had collected “lakhs of signatures” from across the country and these would be submitted to President Ram Nath Kovind.
BJP redirects
The BJP on Thursday said Ms. Gandhi was better off directing her enquiries on the fate of the Women’s Reservation Bill to her former alliance partners in the UPA — Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad Yadav and Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Mulayam Singh Yadav, rather than Mr. Modi.
“Rather than writing to the Prime Minister, Congress president Sonia Gandhi ought to have written or spoken to her alliance partners like Lalu Prasad and Mulayam Singh Yadav to find out why they blocked the passage of the Bill when the UPA was in power,” said BJP spokesperson G.V.L. Narasimha Rao.
While the official word by the BJP was a taunt at the Congress’ own failures to get the Bill passed, party office-bearers said the BJP was in favour of the Bill and saw advantages for itself with its passage.
“We have enough leadership among women to take advantage of the reservation, but smaller parties like the SP and RJD, which are mostly family concerns, will be hit,” said a senior office-bearer. “We want to pass the Bill, especially before 2019, but, like the desire for simultaneous Assembly and Lok Sabha polls, this is a nuanced matter requiring fundamental changes to our electoral system,” said a senior general secretary of the party.
