Opposition unites as BRS' K Kavitha leads hunger strike in Delhi: 10 points
K Kavitha said 18 political parties would participate in the protest launched to seek the introduction of the Women's Reservation Bill in the current session of Parliament.
As many as 18 political parties have been invited to join the hunger strike by Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) MLC K Kavitha, who will be appearing before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on March 11, in New Delhi on Friday.
The daughter of Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR) held the hunger strike in the national capital's Jantar Mantar. On Thursday, she said 18 political parties will participate in the protest launched to seek the introduction of the Women's Reservation Bill in the current session of Parliament.
10 points on K Kavitha and her hunger strike:
1. Kavitha said, “If India needs to develop, women should play a key role in politics. For which, it is important to bring this bill which is pending for the last 27 years.”
2. This is just the beginning and the protest will continue across the country, she added. The bill, which seeks to reserve 33 per cent seats in Lok Sabha and all state legislative assemblies for women, was initially introduced in Lok Sabha on September 12, 1996, by the United Front government.
3. “We released a poster on March 2 about the hunger strike in Delhi over the Women's Reservation Bill. 18 parties confirmed their participation...ED summoned me on March 9. I requested for March 16 but don't know what haste they are in, so I agreed for March 11,” she said. “I had requested the ED that they can come to my house on 11th March to investigate but they said that I will have to come to them,” the BRS leader who arrived in Delhi on Thursday.
4. The hunger strike is being held by her NGO Bharat Jagriti. Parties which are attending Kavitha's dharna at Jantar Mantar are BRS, AAP (Sanjay Singh and Chitra Sarwara), Shiv Sena, Akali Dal (Naresh Gujral), PDP (Anjum Javed Mirza), National Conference (Dr Shami Firdous), Trinamool Congress (Sushmita Dev), Janata Dal-United (KC Tyagi), NCP (Dr Seema Malik), CPI (Narayana K), CPM (Sitaram Yechury), Samajwadi Party (Pooja Shukla), RLD (Shyam Rajak) and MP Kapil Sibal
5. “About 500-600 members will sit on a hunger strike, but the attendance will be much more. More than 6,000 people have confirmed their participation,” she said.
6. The bill, which seeks to reserve 33 per cent seats in the Lok Sabha and all state legislative assemblies for women, was introduced in the Rajya Sabha in May 2008 and was referred to a standing committee. In 2010, it was passed in the House and transmitted finally to the Lok Sabha. However, the bill lapsed with the 15th Lok Sabha.
7. Kavitha said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had promised in both 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha polls that his government would bring this bill and that it was also part of the BJP's election manifesto, Kavitha said.
8. Kavitha said she will face ED as she has not done anything wrong. At a press conference, Kavitha, who has received summons from the ED for questioning in the Delhi excise police case, said if a woman has to be interrogated by a central agency, then as per law, she has a “fundamental right” to be questioned at her home.
9. On March 8, the BRS came down heavily on the Centre after the ED summoned Kavitha in connection with its ongoing probe of the Delhi excise policy case, saying that the central probe agencies have become an extended arm of the BJP.
10. Referring to the summons as “politically motivated”, BRS leader Ravula Sridhar Reddy had said except ED and BJP, nobody really understands the case registered in connection with the new-withdrawn new Delhi excise policy.
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