Shimla, April 22 (PTI) The Himachal Pradesh BJP on Wednesday accused the Congress of stabbing 70 crore women of the country in the back by opposing and derailing a bill to amend the women’s reservation law in the Lok Sabha recently.
The stand adopted by the Congress on the bill in Parliament fully exposed its “anti-woman” mindset, state BJP chief Rajiv Bindal said.
“Prime Minister Narendra Modi had convened a special session of Parliament with the historic objective of ensuring women’s participation in governance, but the Congress and its allies collectively crushed this transformative opportunity,” Bindal told the media here.
The Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill failed to clear the Lok Sabha test on April 17 after 298 members voted in its support, while 230 MPs voted against it. Out of the 528 members who voted, the bill required 352 votes for a two-thirds majority required for its passage.
Under the bill, Lok Sabha seats were to be increased to up to 816 from the current 543 to operationalise the women’s reservation law mandating 33 per cent reservation for women in legislative bodies before the 2029 parliamentary polls, following a delimitation exercise based on the 2011 Census.
Claiming that the Modi government in the past decade took several concrete steps for the social, economic and educational empowerment of women, Bindal said the time has now come to strengthen their role in decision making and handover the keys of governance to 50 per cent of the population.
“But the Congress and some other opposition parties chose to stab women in the back. Celebrating the defeat of the bill and distributing sweets clearly reflected the anti-women character of the party,” he said.
Targeting the Congress leaders in Himachal Pradesh, Bindal claimed they are deliberately avoiding a clear stand on the issue and resorting to evasive tactics which tantamount to openly opposing the bill.
Announcing a ‘Jan Aakrosh Padhari’ in Shimla on April 23, Bindal said thousands of women will come out on the streets to protest against the Congress, which would be a decisive movement for women’s dignity, rights and rightful representation.
Accusing the Congress government in Himachal Pradesh of attempting to delay and manipulate the Panchayati Raj elections in the state, Bindal alleged that it tried every possible tactic to avoid the polls and undermine constitutional processes.
He pointed out that the Election Commission had to submit a 35-page report to the governor highlighting the lack of cooperation from the state government, which, he claimed, was an attempt to hold democracy hostage, a move that was corrected after judicial intervention.
Bindal also alleged that funds allocated to panchayats and urban local bodies under the Finance Commission were forcibly diverted by the state government, while money meant for grassroots development was also taken away, bringing development works to a standstill.
“There is still no clarity on how and where these funds were spent,” he said. PTI BPL ARI
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