NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will fail half the country’s population if he does not pass the Women’s Reservation Bill during his tenure, newly appointed Mahila Congress president Sushmita Dev said in an attempt to pressure the government ahead of the Winter Session of Parliament starting December 15.
“The PM claims to be focusing on economic reforms, but seems to be stalling the biggest social reform that India needs,” Dev, who represents Silchar Lok Sabha constituency, told The Sunday Standard.
“The BJP mentioned the Bill in its poll manifesto. The party enjoys brute majority in the Lok Sabha. The PM has been assured of full support on the issue by Congress chief Sonia Gandhi. What stops them from going ahead and passing the Bill? I hope it is passed this Winter Session,” she said.
Sonia Gandhi had recently urged the PM to pass the Women’s Reservation Bill, which allows 33 per cent quota for women in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies. Dev too has asked all the state units of Mahila Congress to petition the respective chief ministers to enlist their support for the legislation.
When asked why the Congress did not pass the Bill when it was in power, Dev said her party tried to, but could not take it through the Lok Sabha due to lack of numerical strength.
Dev said it was strange that the PM has not yet replied to Sonia Gandhi’s letter on the issue though “usually he responds to such formal communication.” Noting that she was not sure if the Bill was a low priority for the Central government, Dev alleged the government was only paying lip service to women’s empowerment.
“The BJP thinks rural women only belong to the kitchen. For instance, the PM’s much-publicised Ujjwala scheme connects women with a kitchen equipment. The Centre claims it honoured two crore women by helping them to shift from the traditional wood-based stoves to LPG. But the issue here should be promotion of clean energy and protection of environment through non-polluting fuel options. Smoke billowing from kitchen affects the entire family, not just women,” she said.
Dev said internal polls in the party’s women’s wing were desirable but not possible, because the women’s wing was not structured like other frontal organisations.