New Delhi: The Congress will exert pressure on the BJP over the Women’s Reservation Bill and will deploy 25 women leaders across 25 cities on September 25 to claim credit over the legislation and point out the shortcomings in the BJP’s bill. The Congress' move comes a day after women parliamentarians and leaders of the BJP felicitated PM Modi for passing the long-pending bill and termed it a historic move.
The 25 women leaders of the grand old party will explain that it was the Congress that first passed the bill in the Rajya Sabha in 2010, but the BJP waited for nine years to get it passed in the Lok Sabha despite having the majority in the Lower House of Parliament. Congress women leaders will also explain the shortcomings in BJP’s bill like laying the pre-conditions of a census and a delimitation of constituencies before implementing the 33 per cent quota for women in the Lok Sabha and the state Assemblies saying the entire process could take several years.
They will also talk about how the women belonging to the SC, ST and OBC communities will miss out on the opportunity as there is no provision for them in the BJP’s bill despite several amendments to the effect moved by the Congress members in the Rajya Sabha. “The overall narrative will be based on the speech given by our leader Sonia Gandhi. This is our bill and we acted first on it. Besides, the Congress has always been pro-women with or without the bill. The BJP pays only lip service to them. We will also demand that the bill be implemented with immediate effect and those belonging to the SC, ST and OBC should also get a reservation within the overall quota,” Maharashtra Congress Working President and special invitee to the Congress Working Committee Praniti Shinde, who will address a presser in Kolkata, West Bengal, told ETV Bharat.
