pm-urges-opposition-not-to-politicise-women-s-quota-bill

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday urged the Opposition not to give a political colour to the government’s bills aimed at implementing the women’s reservation law and cautioned that those who had opposed such measures in the past had suffered electoral setbacks.

 

Allaying fears over delimitation, the Prime Minister assured that no injustice would be done to any state, from east to west and north to south, and stressed that the exercise would be carried out in a fair manner.

 

Intervening in the debate in the Lok Sabha on three bills moved to amend the women’s quota law and set up a delimitation commission, Modi said that if all sides supported the proposals, it would not serve the political interests of any one party but would be in the interest of the country.

 

“Since women’s reservation came into discussion, those who opposed this in the past were not forgiven by the women of the country and they ended up badly in the elections that followed,” Modi said, while urging MPs to support the legislation.

 

The Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, which seeks to operationalise the women’s reservation law, was introduced in the Lok Sabha on Thursday after a division of votes.

 

Two accompanying bills, the Delimitation Bill and the Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill, were also introduced in the House to extend the proposed amended women’s quota law to Union Territories, including Delhi, Puducherry and Jammu and Kashmir.

 

In his remarks, Modi said there was no need to give political colour to the issue of women’s reservation in legislatures and appealed to all Members of Parliament not to miss what he described as an important opportunity to ensure greater representation for women in decision-making.

 

“Let us all MPs not miss this important opportunity to give reservation to women,” the Prime Minister said.

 

He added that in India’s development journey, Parliamentarians had an opportunity to make women active participants in governance and policymaking.

 

“I have come to appeal to you that do not see this from a political lens, this is a decision in national interest,” Modi said.

 

Earlier, the Bills were introduced after a 40-minute debate, following which the Opposition pressed for a division of votes to introduce the Constitutional (131st Amendment) Bill.

 

The Bill was later introduced with 251 members supporting it and 185 members voting against it.