‘How many women are there in RSS?’ Venugopal hits out at BJP, Yogi Adityanath in Rajya Sabha debate

K.C. Venugopal calls women's reservation bill Congress's 'child', reiterating what many senior party leaders have said. TMC MP Mausam Noor says, 'It is our bill.'

File photo of Congress Rajya Sabha MP K C Venugopal with former Congress president Sonia Gandhi at the old Parliament building | ANI

New Delhi: The Congress Thursday sought to corner the BJP in the discussion on the women reservation bill in the Rajya Sabha, as it questioned the representation of women in its ideological parent, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). 

Participating in the discussion, Congress MP K.C. Venugopal hit out at Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath for opposing the bill in 2010.

“Can I ask a question? Nadda ji talks about political representation. Our party also has enough political representation, their party might also have. But who is controlling the party? Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. How many women are there in RSS?” Venugopal asked.

Union minister Bhupender Yadav countered the Congress MP to give the example of the Rashtriya Sevika Samiti. “With RSS, there is Rashtriya Sevika Samiti which has 100 percent women members who do nationalistic work,” Yadav said.

Venugopal then quoted the UP chief minister from 2010 during the debate on the women reservation bill, to attack him. 

“There is a statement by the now UP chief minister, the then Lok Sabha MP. ‘There is a women’s reservation present at the local level. How does that affect domestic responsibilities like child care? It should be assessed whether the woman quota affects these roles.’ That means your (BJP’s) attitude towards women is (they are) for child care,” he said

Dubbing the women reservation bill as a Congress “child”, he said its journey started in 1931 “when Sarojini Naidu wrote to the former British prime minister for equal power for men and women. Then Balwant Rai ji, Indira ji and finally Rajiv ji in 1989 brought a great legislation of empowering women in Local bodies“. 

“What happened when Rajiv ji introduced the bill for empowerment of women in local bodies in 1989? The entire BJP opposed it. BJP stalwarts voted against the bill. Lal Krishna Advani, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Jaswant Singh ji, Ram Jethmalani ji — all opposed the bill. This is the record of the Rajya Sabha. Now you want to be the champion of this (women reservation),” he asserted, 

Venugopal also attacked the Modi government for delay in bringing the bill and questioned its “sincerity” in its implementation. 

He also alleged that BJP brought the bill only after its loss in Karnataka and the Congress government’s successful implementation of welfare schemes for women.

“You are bringing it now because you have political calculations. Why this political calculation? It came after the Karnataka election. The Congress party strengthened the women of Karnataka through its guarantees,” he added.

On Thursday, the bill — Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam — was tabled in the Rajya Sabha and is likely to be passed after discussion. The Lok Sabha passed the bill Wednesday, with 454 members voting in favour and two against it. 

TMC now claims bill its idea

In her speech on the bill, Trinamool Congress MP Mausam Noor cited her party’s track record of women workers and leaders to claim the bill was its idea. 

Noor said that her party already has 40 percent women lawmakers in the Lok Sabha and 50 percent elected women members in panchayats and municipalities. 

“We have already implemented women reservation in the past. This government is trying to implement the bill at present, which it cannot implement in the near future,” she said, referring to the fact that a census followed by a delimitation process is to be done before women’s quota is implemented in Parliament and state assemblies.

“Of course, we support the bill. It is our bill. It is our idea. It is what we have already implemented,” she added. 

Noor attacked controversial Lok Sabha MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh and targeted the prime minister as well. “I ask the prime minister. What is the name of the Lok Sabha MP of yours who shamed us? Who harassed our champion wrestlers. On behalf of women of India, what is he doing, still sitting here in this new building?”

The Trinamool MP questioned the representation of women in top offices. “Going beyond Parliament, we as a nation need to change our thinking. In the Election Commission, of the 9 top posts, not one is a woman. Out of 11,000 IAS officers between 1951 and 2020, only one in ten was female. Only one in 10 IPS officers is a woman. Out of 680 judges, only 83 are women. Only 15 percent women hold senior and managerial positions in India,” she asserted.

(Edited by Tony Rai)