PIONEER EDGE NEWS SERVICE/ Dehradun
The head of the social media wing of the All India Congress Committee (AICC) Supriya Shrinate said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government’s real intent behind bringing the constitutional amendment bill in Lok Sabha was to impose a divisive delimitation on the country in the guise of the women reservation. Addressing the media persons at the headquarters of the State Congress here on Tuesday, she said that the BJP government’s attempt to fiddle with the federal structure and constitution has received a setback in the parliament and it has made the party and its leaders panicky.
She said that the government deliberately linked the Women Reservation Bill which was passed unanimously by both houses of the parliament in 2023, with the delimitation exercise and census of 2011.
Shrinate emphatically stated that the Congress party is in favour of reservation for women in Lok Sabha and State Assemblies but would not accept attempts to divide the country in the name of women. She said that the government should implement the Women Reservation Act passed in 2023 and immediately ensure that 33 per cent seats (181 seats) in the 543 member Lok Sabha are reserved for women.
She said that the delimitation on the basis of the 2011 census is not only impractical but will also destabilise the democratic balance and will be a direct assault on the federal structure of the country.
She added that reservation without caste census was unjustified and demanded that separate reservation for OBC women should be ensured. Accusing the BJP of having a long history of dissent on women reservation, the Congress leader said that it was the Congress party which gave women their due by bringing in the 73rd and 74th constitutional amendment acts.
Putting a question mark on the intention of the government, Shrinate said that the government brought the bill in haste, in the middle of election campaigns in some states and without calling an all-party meeting on the issue.
She said that the BJP government has failed to protect women in the country. Shrinate said that Manipur has been burning for the last three years but the Modi government has maintained a stoic silence.
The Pradesh Congress Committee president Ganesh Godiyal said that the Congress party is ready to support the State government if it convenes a special session of Vidhan Sabha for providing 33 per cent of reservation to women in the 70 member Assembly.
