New Delhi: Amid the controversy around the tabling of the Women’s Reservation Bill, with some members questioning the government’s intent to implement it, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday said the legislation will bring an end to the long struggle of women. "The Bill will be the beginning of PM Modi's vision of women-led development," he said.
Training his gun on the Opposition, Shah said: "For some parties, this Bill could be a tool to win elections, but for BJP and PM Modi, this is not a political issue. Women's reservation is question of recognition and acknowledgement."
"Women's reservation has been the very breath and soul of PM Modi since the day he came to power," Shah said.
Amit Shah further said: "This is the fifth attempt to bring the Women's quota bill. From [former Prime Minister HD] Deve Gowda ji to Manmohan Singhji, four attempts were made to bring this bill. What was the reason this bill was not passed?"
Earlier in the day, during the debate on the draft legislation on women’s reservation in the ongoing session of the Parliament, Shiromani Akali Dal MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal said if the government had the “right intent”, it would not have sat on the census since 2021. She claimed that women members, who fought for years to reach the Parliament, have been “cheated” yet again as the reservation law cannot come into effect till a census and delimitation exercise is done.
Meanwhile, AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi rose to oppose the draft legislation during the debate in the Lower House, saying that if the idea behind the Bill was to ensure better representation of women in Parliament and other legislative bodies, then why has the “justification not been extended to the Other Backward Class (OBC) and Muslim women?”
He claimed that the representation of Muslim and OBC women in the Parliament was “minimal”.
Meanwhile, BJP MP and Union Minister Smriti Irani hit out at the Opposition for calling the intent of the Centre behind tabling the Bill into question, saying that they should come clean on whether they wish to follow the Constitutional procedures.
“Is it the wish of opposition leaders that the constitutional process is not followed? Should we not abide by the Constitution? Is that the position taken by the opposition parties,” Irani said, as quoted by PTI.