Women’s Reservation Bill is “distraction tactic” of BJP-led government: Rahul

NEW DELHI: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday said the Women’s Reservation Bill is a “distraction tactic” by the BJP-led government to take away the attention of people from demands such as caste census and said nobody knows when the legislation will be implemented.

Addressing a press conference here a day after the Bill was passed in the Special Session of Parliament, Rahul Gandhi demanded that the data of the previous caste census should be released immediately and that a fresh caste census should be held to determine the population of OBCs and other weaker sections.

Rahul Gandhi said the party extended its full support to the Women’s Reservation Bill but there is no certainty about the date of its implementation and it requires a Census and delimitation exercise. He said should have been implemented immediately.

“Women’s Reservation Bill is great but we received two footnotes that Census and Delimitation need to be done before that. Both of these will take years. The truth is that the reservation can be implemented today…This is not a complicated matter but the government doesn’t want to do that. The government has presented this before the country but it will be implemented 10 years from now. Nobody knows if this will even be implemented. This is a distraction tactic, diversion tactic,” Rahul Gandhi said.

“What is it that you are being diverted from? From OBC Census. I spoke of one institution in Parliament, that which runs the Government of India – Cabinet secretary and secretaries. I asked why only three out of 90 people belong to the OBC community?. I don’t understand why PM Modi speaks of OBCs every day but what did he do for them?” he asked.

The Congress leader had spoken about the lower representation of OBCs in the secretary-level posts at the Centre while participating in the debate on the Women’s Reservation Bill in the Lok Sabha.

The BJP countered him by saying that it gives larger representation to OBCs and that the number of MPs of the party from the community was more than the total number of parliamentarians in Congress.

The 128th Constitutional Amendment Bill 2023, also called Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, was passed during the Special Session of Parliament which began on Monday.

The two Houses were adjourned sine die on Thursday, a day before the scheduled ending of the session after the Bill was passed. Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam is the first bill passed by Parliament in its new building.