New Delhi: Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra attacked the Narendra Modi-led central government Wednesday over provisions in the recently-introduced women’s quota Bill that could delay its passage.
The feisty MP asked if women were less important than cows, since the Centre built bovine shelters without counting their population, while the women’s reservation Bill will have to wait for the Census.
Moitra said in Lok Sabha Wednesday: “When this government wanted to protect cows, you did not count their number, you did not wait to see if the cow was a Jersey or a Gir or a Sahiwal (different breeds of cow). You just went and built the cow shelter. Are we women less that we have to wait while you count numbers and draw lines?” Moitra asked, referring to clauses in the quota Bill which says it will come into effect only after the Census and the subsequent delimitation exercise.
Mocking the Bill’s name “Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam,” the West Bengal MP said the women in this country did not want any “vandans or vandanas (salutations)”, but direct action.
She demanded the government immediately bring in the Bill on the basis of the voters list.
“This is your moment to show us that Modi hai toh mumkin hai. Implement the reservation Bill immediately on the basis of the voters list, and send 33 per cent women to the Lok Sabha in 2024,” Moitra said.
Moitra said Article 334A of the Bill states the reservation will come into effect only after a delimitation exercise is undertaken for this purpose, which in turn can happen only after the Census, but the dates of both the Census and delimitation are indeterminate till now. “It means, we do not know if and when we will actually have 33 per cent women sitting in Lok Sabha… Women’s reservation is determined on two totally indeterminate dates. Can there be greater jumla? Forget 2024, it (the Bill’s implemetation) will not be possible even in 2029,” she said.
Quoting from poet Kaifi Azmi’s “Aurat” and Rabindranath Tagore’s “Sabla”, the Trinamool leader said the demand for special reservation was, however, an insult to a woman’s intelligence and capacity.
Moitra said the BJP was only seeking credit for the Bill without showing any intention of implementing it, adding that West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was actually the “mother of the women’s quota Bill”.
“She (Banerjee) has given birth to the original idea as she has unconditionally sent 37 per cent women MPs to Parliament… What this government has brought today is not a women’s reservation Bill but a women’s reservation rescheduling Bill and should be renamed as such. Its agenda is delay,” Moitra added.
Accusing the Modi government of “endless dithering”, Moitra said there was no clarity on when the next Census and the subsequent delimitation exercise will take place.
The MP added: “Women’s reservation needs action not the placebo of a legislatively-mandated procrastination… Give us our equal rights, we hold up half the sky, give us at least half the earth. Our leader Mamata Banerjee and the Trinamool Congress have walked the talk. We don’t have to show the country that we support the Bill. We have sent more MPs than this Bill will.”
Edited by Tikli Basu
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