Maharajganj (UP), Apr 20 (PTI) Union minister Pankaj Chaudhary on Monday said opposition parties have an “anti-women mindset” and their “true intentions” stand exposed after they stalled the women’s reservation bill.
Addressing a press conference here, Chaudhary lauded the Centre’s efforts to ensure representation for every section of society, saying inclusive democracy has been steadily expanding in the country under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The Modi government introduced a “historic” bill to provide 33 per cent reservation to women to make laws, with the aim to get “half the population including mothers and sisters” rightful representation in the legislatures, said Chaudhary, who is the Union Minister of State for Finance and the UP BJP president.
He alleged that the Indian National Congress, the Samajwadi Party and other allies of the INDIA bloc did not allow the bill to be passed, exposing their “true intentions”.
The Congress and other opposition parties have maintained that the Constitution amendment bill to implement women’s quota in legislatures from 2029 was “killed” by the government, and said the opposition was only against the delimitation bill.
Chaudhary further alleged that the opposition parties only pretend to support women’s reservation but instead had an “anti-women mindset”.
Referring to SP leader Dharmendra Yadav’s comment that his party won’t support the bill unless reservations are extended to Muslim and OBC women, Chaudhary alleged that the opposition parties used the pretext of 20 per cent Muslim women to deny rights to the remaining 80 per cent women.
Terming this to be “appeasement politics”, Chaudhary said that reservation based on religion is against the basic spirit of the Constitution, asserting that the BJP always upholds constitutional values.
Describing the Congress-led INDIA bloc as a “women-opposing coalition”, he said it is driven by a conservative mindset and seeks to confine women to the boundaries of a house. He alleged that they have consistently worked to block, obstruct and derail the women’s reservation proposal.
Chaudhary said there are currently 75 women in Parliament, accounting for about 15 per cent of the total strength, and added that the Modi government aimed to raise this figure beyond 33 per cent through the proposed legislation. Women will expose the opposition’s “sin”, he said.
When the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill was put to vote in Lok Sabha, 298 members voted in support, while 230 MPs voted against it. Out of the 528 members who voted, the Bill required 352 votes for a two-thirds majority.
The Bill proposed to increase the number of Lok Sabha seats to 816 from the current 543 to “operationalise” the women’s reservation law before the 2029 parliamentary polls, following a delimitation exercise based on the 2011 Census.
Seats were also to be increased in assemblies of states and Union territories to accommodate 33 per cent reservation for women. PTI COR KIS SKY SKY
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