‘Will it be implemented without delimitation?’: Kapil Sibal questions on women's reservation bill
The women's reservation bill or the ‘Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam’ was tabled in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday.
Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal on Wednesday took a dig at the Centre over the women's reservation bill that has taken center stage in the five-day special Parliament session, questioning whether it will still be implemented without delimitation. He also alleged that the government is pushing the bill with a political agenda.
“Will they (Centre) implement it without delimitation? Then we are ready...implement it tomorrow,” Sibal said while speaking to the news agency ANI.
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He added, “If they had brought this bill in 2014, it would have been implemented by now...they don't want to implement this bill even in 2029...this is for 2024.”
The women's reservation bill or the ‘Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam’ was tabled in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday. The bill seeks to provide a 33 percent quota for women in Lok Sabha and state assemblies. According to the legislation, one-third of the total number of seats reserved for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes will be reserved for women from those groups.
The bill was tabled in the Rajya Sabha in 2010 during the then UPA government.
BJP hits back
Union minister Anurag Thakur hit back at Sibal's remarks, alleging that the Congress neither wanted to give reservations to women leaders in 2010 when it was in power nor does it want to do so now.
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“Kapil Sibal was the former law minister when the draft legislation was introduced earlier in 2008 and is aware that the then Congress-led UPA never intended to pass the bill,” Thakur said.
He added, “The Congress neither gave reservations to women under Indira Gandhi's leadership nor did it make any progress in that direction under Sonia Gandhi. There was also no reservation for women neither under (Jawaharlal) Nehru-ji or Rajiv Gandhi.”
