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Aditi Tandon
Tribune news service
New Delhi, July 16
Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Monday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging him to pass the Women’s Reservation Bill in the Monsoon Session of Parliament and said he had the Congress’s unconditional support for the same.
Stressing immediacy in the matter Gandhi said if not passed now, it would become impossible to implement the law for the next General Election.
“Mr Prime Minister in many of your public rallies you have spoken of your passion to empower women and involve them more meaningfully in public life. What better way then to demonstrate your commitment to the cause of women than by offering your unconditional support to the passage of Womens Reservation Bill? And what better time than the upcoming Parliament session?” Gandhi asked.
He referred to the panchayat and municipal level Reservation for women, which has improved governance in India and said to PM, It’s time for him to rise above politics, walk the talk and pass the bill.
The women’s quota Bill, which seeks to reserve 33 per cent seats in Parliament and state legislatures for women, was passed by the Rajya Sabha on March 8, 2010, but could not clear the LS hurdle. It lapsed subsequently and will now have to be pushed afresh.
Gandhi recalled to PM the remarks of them Leader of Opposition in RS Arun Jaitley who called the passage of the bill at that time historic and momentous.
The Congress chief also said BJP and its allies have majority in the Lok Sabha and all the bill now needs is the PM’s support.
Gandhi submitted 3.2 million signatures collected from across India in support of the bill to the prime minister.
Politically Gandhis move is attempted to counter the BJP’s aggressive push for the anti-instant triple talaq bill, which will benefit Muslim women.
The BJP is painting the Congress in a corner on this matter and the Congress hopes to strike back with a larger and more comprehensive issue of women’s quota bill.
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