‘Historic’ women’s reservation bill passed due to PM’s strong will: Union minister

Jammu, Sep 26 (PTI) Amid Congress’ criticism over the women’s reservation bill, Union minister Som Parkash on Tuesday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s strong will power led to the passage of the bill in both houses of Parliament last week.

The Congress has questioned why the bill was not being implemented for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, and claimed that bringing the women’s reservation bill was a “politically motivated move” and a “jumla” by the BJP government.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the Rozgar Mela’ being held here, Parkash said, “Women’s reservation bill was passed on the first day in the new Parliament in a historic moment. All parties supported the bill and there is nothing left to criticise.”

The minister of state for commerce and industry said the bill was pending for a very long time and it was passed just because of the “strong will power” of Modi.

The bill to reserve one-third seats in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies for women received the parliamentary nod on Thursday after both houses voted in favour of it.

The 128th Constitution amendment bill, referred to as the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, will now require the approval of a majority of state assemblies.

It will be implemented after a delimitation exercise to redraw parliamentary and assembly constituencies based on a census which the government has said will be commissioned next year.

Terming the bill the BJP government’s “biggest jumla”, the Congress on Monday said the Centre was not serious about the issue.

“The women’s reservation bill is the biggest jumla in the last nine years. Multiple jumlas have come but this is the biggest one. If the Prime Minister and the government were serious about the issue, they would have implemented reservation for women from the 2024 Lok Sabha polls,” Congress national spokesperson Shama Mohamed said. She added that it is unclear when the bill will be implemented.

Asked about Congress leader Rahul Gandhi remarks that there is no connection between women’s reservation, census and delimitation and that it is a distraction by the Modi government, the Union minister said, “He should not be taken seriously. They (Congress) have failed to pass the bill despite being in power for so long. According to the constitutional provisions, delimitation and census is imperative and all things will happen after that.”

“Women reservation is a historic step taken by the Modi government for the empowerment of women. I congratulate the government and also all the parties who supported the bill,” he added.

On the recent seizure of properties of a US-based Khalistani separatist in Amritsar and Chandigarh, Parkash said, “Any power which talks about disintegrating the country has to face the government.”

“It is the responsibility of the government to safeguard the unity and integrity of the nation and the government is accordingly acting against them as per the law of the land,” he said.

On the Rozgar Mela’, the minister said it was the ninth such job fair organised by the government to provide job letters to unemployed youth across the country.

“Modi government has promised jobs to the youth and today 51,000 jobs in central government departments are being provided to them at 45 locations across the country. Likewise 105 people were given jobs in Jammu,” the minister said.

He added that the central government has introduced various schemes like Startup India and Make in India to provide soft loans to address the issue of unemployment in the country.