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Will right away implement women’s quota bill if voted to power: Kharge at CWC

Oct 09, 2023 02:29 PM IST

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said the Congress will go to the people with strength in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Telangana and Mizoram

NEW DELHI: The Congress will straightaway implement the women’s reservation bill and conduct the nationwide caste census if the party comes to power, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said in his address to the Congress Working Committee, or CWC, the party’s top decision-making body, on Monday.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said public welfare, social justice and progressive development are the guarantees of the Congress (X/kharge)
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said public welfare, social justice and progressive development are the guarantees of the Congress (X/kharge)

Kharge said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) could have right away implemented the bill which seeks to reserve 33% of seats for women in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies but Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not do this.

“The Congress and opposition parties wholeheartedly supported the women’s reservation bill. If Modiji wanted, women’s reservation could have been implemented from this election itself. And OBC women could also get a place. This bill has been brought only for publicity and vote bank,” Kharge, who is also the leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha, told the CWC.

On September 21, Parliament approved the 106th amendment to the Constitution to reserve a third of the seats in the Lok Sabha and state legislatures for women, a landmark endorsement of a decades-long crusade that was unsuccessful on at least six occasions over nearly three decades.

But the law will take some time before being implemented as the next census and the subsequent delimitation exercise (or redrawing of Lok Sabha and assembly constituencies) will ascertain the particular seats being earmarked for women. Union law minister Arjun Ram Meghwal has said the 33% quota for women will kick in any time after 2026.

Apart from former party presidents, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul, the CWC meeting on Monday was also attended by chief ministers of Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka and Himachal Pradesh, besides top party leaders from Madhya Pradesh and Telangana.

Kharge countered the BJP charge that the Congress and other opposition parties blocked women’s reservations all these years and supported the bill because they could not be seen opposing it. “The truth is that Congress has done the most work in giving power to women in India. If we come to power in 2024, we will immediately implement women’s reservation along with determining the political participation of OBC women,” he added.

The veteran Congress leader also asked party leaders to step up efforts to highlight the government’s failures and its “false propaganda”, stressing that the attacks will only get shrill as the election dates approach.

“…They (BJP/Centre) are directly attacking us. Limits are being broken. In such a situation we cannot remain silent. Such attacks and lies will become more intense as we get closer to the general elections. It is important to counter such attacks and propaganda and immediately rebut the lies. The ruling party has realised their situation in the upcoming elections, so they are telling one lie after another to divert people from the issues,” LoP Kharge said while addressing the meeting.

Kharge also raised the demand for conducting a nationwide caste census to ensure social justice and rights to the SCs, STs and OBCs in accordance with their population, and underlined that the BJP was quiet on this topic.

“The government is ignoring the resentment among government employees regarding the new pension scheme,” he said, accusing the central government of misusing federal investigating agencies to target its political rivals.

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