New Delhi: Coming down heavily on both the BJP and the Congress, Bhartiya Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leader K Kavitha on Wednesday said nothing much has changed for women in the last 75 years and that reservation for women in legislative bodies is possible only through the formulation of a law, news agency ANI reported.
Slamming both the parties for criticising the BRS over not fielding enough women candidates ahead of the Telangana Assembly elections, K Kavitha said there was only one woman in India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s cabinet and in the present day, PM Narendra Modi, too, has only two women in the Union cabinet.
Speaking to the news agency, Kavitha said, “We've been raising this issue for the last ten years that no political party is giving space to women on their own and that's the history of India. There was only one woman in Nehru's cabinet while there were many women in the independence movement. In PM Modi's cabinet there are two women while many women are participating actively in politics.”
“Nothing much has changed for women in the last 75 years. We demanded that there needs to be a compulsion and it could only be created through a Bill and the Constitution could only enforce it through a legislation. That's why Women Reservation Bill is important,” the Telangana MLC added.
It is to be noted that both the BJP and the Congress slammed the BRS for fielding only six women candidates as the party announced the names of 115 candidates for the Telangana polls scheduled later this year.
The parties took a dig at K Kavitha who staged a protest in Delhi's Jantar Mantar previously demanding women's reservation.
Responding to criticism, K Kavitha, as quoted by news agency IANS, said, "I am happy that the parties which did not respond to dharna then are now responding. But it is unfortunate that instead of addressing the real issue, they are trying to play a political game."