Kavitha’s fast for women’s reservation ‘a ploy’ to distract from excise scam: BJP

Karuna Gopal Vartakavi, BJP national in-charge for Women Policies, said that Ms. Kavitha needed to be “shown a mirror”.

Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) MLC K Kavitha with CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury during a one-day hunger strike demanding the introduction of the Women’s Reservation Bill in the current Budget Session of Parliament, at Jantar Mantar, in New Delhi on March 10, 2023. | Photo Credit: ANI

The BJP on March 10, 2023 termed Bharatha Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leader K. Kavitha’s day-long hunger strike, along with leaders of twelve political parties, as “preposterous” and a ploy to change the narrative on the Delhi excise case.

Speaking to The Hindu, Karuna Gopal Vartakavi, BJP national in-charge for Women Policies, said that Ms. Kavitha needed to be “shown a mirror”. “It is only now that we have been granted the privilege of woman Ministers in Telangana; for the first five years, we didn’t have a single woman Minister in the State,” she said.

“The fast is a ploy. If she is indeed arrested in the liquor scam, it may be passed off as an arrest over a righteous demand for women’s reservation,” she added.

“She (Ms. Kavitha) was not outraged that the first citizen — Hon’ble Governor of Telangana Dr. Tamilisai, a woman, an accomplished doctor — was abused openly by her party seniors; there was public outrage but that abusing leader was rewarded with a plum post by Chief Minister Chandrasekhar Rao,” she said.

“By asking for reservation, isn’t Ms Kavitha demanding respect for women? Doesn’t she know that charity begins at home?” she added.

Ms. Vartakavi also pointed out that there was a lack of toilet facilities in government schools and also street lights in Hyderabad. “Telangana has recorded the highest rates of rapes of minors in the country and NCRB data shows that assaults and crimes against women in the state have gone up 23% in the recent past,” she added.

The presence of leaders from the Samajwadi Party and the Rashtriya Janata Dal — who had earlier opposed the Women’s Reservation Bill in 2012 — at Ms. Kavitha’s strike was also pointed out. “Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao went seeking partnership with patriarchs of Samajwadi party and the Rashtriya Janata Dal who have ensured the failure of the Bill in Parliament on multiple occasions. They even made disgustingly sexist remarks to express their opposition to the Bill,” she said.

“Ms. Kavitha should first convince her father to reserve 33% seats for women contestants to prove her commitment towards women development,” she said.