RJD leader Abdul Bari Siddiqui triggers row with “lipstick, bob-cut” remark on women's reservation law

Accused of narrow-mindedness, Abdul Bari Siddiqui issued a clarification and expressed regret over his remark.

Days after RJD MP Manoj Jha courted a controversy with his 'Thakur' reference in Rajya Sabha while speaking on the women's reservation bill, another leader from Lalu Yadav's party has kicked up a political storm over the subject. Addressing an event in Bihar's Muzaffarpur, senior RJD politician Abdul Bari Siddiqui warned the audience that women "wearing lipsticks and bob-cut hairstyles" would enter parliament in the name of reservation.

RJD leader Abdul Bari Siddiqui

Siddiqui, towing his party's line on women's reservation in parliament, said the Central government should provide reservation to women belonging to backward communities. Else, he claimed, those with "lipsticks and bob-cut hairstyles would come forward".

Reacting to the remark, BJP MP Sunita Duggal said on Saturday, “This shows their narrow mindset... Women are making a mark in every area... Giving such statements represents their rude mentality...They want women to do only household work and not contribute to the outside world.”

JMM MP Mahua Maji said politicians must avoid statements that can hurt women.

"We also want the women from backward classes to come forward... We are also talking about the reservation of SC, ST, and OBC women in the Women's Reservation Bill," she added.

Accused of narrow-mindedness, Siddiqui issued a clarification and expressed regret over his remark. He said his controversial statement was merely an attempt to explain the implications of the women's reservation law to rural women present in the audience "in their language".

"In that rally, hundreds of rural women were there... I used that language to explain to the rural women in their language. My intention was not to hurt anyone... If someone is hurt, I express regret... It was a gathering of extremely backward classes and I was teaching them...RJD had been in support of Women's Reservation since the beginning," he was quoted as saying by the news agency ANI.

On Friday, President Droupadi Murmu gave her assent to the Women's Reservation Bill that seeks 33 percent reservation to women in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies.

The constitution amendment bill was passed by the Lok Sabha with near unanimity and the Rajya Sabha with unanimity.

Per the law, members of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes will get the benefits of quota within quota. The opposition, including the RJD, however, had demanded that members of Other Backward Classes must also get the benefit.

Earlier this week, during the debate on the bill in Rajya Sabha, RJD MP Manoj Jha recited the poem 'Thakur Ka Kuan' to emphasize his party's demand. The BJP, however, called it an insult to the members of the Thakur community.

With inputs from ANI, PTI