Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis launched a nationwide campaign to raise awareness for the Women’s Reservation Bill (File Photo)
MUMBAI: CM Devendra Fadnavis on Monday announced the launch of a campaign to create awareness about the Women’s Reservation Bill across the country and in Maharashtra.He said the BJP and its allies in the state will collect one crore signatures in support of the bill and send it to PM Modi.“We shall create awareness such that the opposition will be forced to acknowledge and come in support of the Bill. We will not rest till the women’s reservation bill is passed,” said Fadnavis adding they would expose the opposition’s anti-women mindset.Addressing a press conference, he said, the BJP will hold a major demonstration tomorrow in support of the bill. All the Mahayuti allies too will carry out awareness campaigns at their level.“April 17th could have been a significant day in the country’s social history, but the opposition’s stance squandered this opportunity. On the day the Women’s Reservation Bill was to be approved, the Congress, Samajwadi Party, Nationalist Congress Party (Sharad Pawar faction), and Shiv Sena (UBT) opposed the bill. The opposition parties celebrated this incident. The decision to complete the process based on the 2011 census was made to ensure speedy justice for women.
If the NDA had a two-thirds majority, the bill could have been passed easily, leaving no opposition party with the opportunity to oppose it.”Terming the Shiv Sena (UBT), NCP (SP) as opportunistic, he said in 2023 the NDA had a two-third majority and so these parties voted in favour of the Bill.Fadnavis accused the Opposition parties of effecting the “foeticide” of women’s rights in elected bodies. “The Opposition murdered the women’s quota Bill due to their regressive mindset,” he said.He said the centre had assured a 50 per cent increase in existing seats, which would have increased the representation of the southern states from 23.76 per cent to 23.87 per cent. The representation of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes would have also gone up, he said.“I challenge the Opposition to appoint someone of my level to a debate on what was wrong in their argument against the Bill,” he said.On the timing of the introduction of the women’s reservation bill, he said the announcement had been made long ago.
“It was a big risk to bring the bill during elections without a two-third majority but Modiji does not think of such things because he wanted to give the reservation to women,” Fadnavis.The CM accused the Congress of an urban Naxal mindset stating it opposes everything that goes against its political interest.He said the women’s reservation bill was passed unanimously in 2023. “How would one know they (the opposition) would turn like this,” said Fadnavis.Responding to Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi’s criticism, Fadnavis said the Bill’s implementation is constitutionally linked to completion of census and subsequent delimitation of constituencies. He pointed out it was originally envisaged the census would be completed by 2024, followed by delimitation and implementation of the reservation by 2029.However, due to delays in conducting the census, the government proposed a “limited technical adjustment” by relying on earlier population data to initiate the process.“A similar approach was adopted earlier when delimitation was carried out in 2008 based on the 2001 census. The Opposition is fully aware of these provisions but is still opposing for political reasons,” Fadnavis said.On the delay in conducting the census, he said the country became Covid free only towards the end of 2023 and preparations for conducting the census took two years.He rejected Gandhi’s charge that the move diverts attention from a caste census, saying the two issues are unrelated.Caste enumeration among the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) would be undertaken as part of the broader census exercise, he said, claiming that previous Congress-led governments had not conducted such an exercise.He further alleged Congress failed to implement women’s reservation when it had the required parliamentary strength.
