NEW DELHI: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday said in Lok Sabha that he supports the women's reservation bill but lamented that the measure was "incomplete" as it lacks quota for other backward classes and further pushed for a caste census.
Participating in the debate in Lok Sabha on the women's reservation bill, the MP from Wayanad said a huge step in the transfer of power to women was Panchayati Raj and the present bill was another big step.
"I stand in support of the women's reservation bill," the Congress scion said.
"It (Women's Reservation Bill) is a big step and I am sure everybody - the treasury benches and the Opposition - in this room agrees that this is a very important step for the women of our country. There is one thing, in my view, that makes this bill incomplete. I would like to have seen the OBC reservation included in this bill," he added.
Rahul also echoed the sentiments of opposition parties urging the government to implement the bill immediately and termed the decision to enact the bill post delimitation as "strange"
"The idea that you require new census, delimitation to implement this bill strange...this bill can be implemented today," the Congress leader said.
"...You (Government) implement this bill. There is no need for delimitation and census, just give 33 per cent reservation to women," he added.
He also accused the BJP of trying to create a distraction with the women's quota bill after the opposition raised the issue of caste census.
Rahul also said the President should have been invited when the transfer of proceedings took place from the old to the new Parliament building. "This is a nice, tasteful building but would have liked to see the President in this process," he said.
"The president is a woman from a tribal community. It would've been befitting to have her visible in transfer to the new Parliament building," he added.
The constitutional amendment bill was introduced in the Lower House on Tuesday. It was the first bill introduced in the new Parliament building.
The bill provides for 33 per cent reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies. The reservation will come into effect only after the completion of the census and delimitation exercise.
India already reserves for women a third of seats in Panchayati Raj Institutions at the village level. It also reserves one-third of the offices of chairperson at all levels of Panchayati Raj Institutions and in urban local bodies.