“Seems they won’t implement it”: Udhayanidhi questions Centre’s intent behind women’s reservation Bill

Chennai (Tamil Nadu) [India], September 20 (ANI): While the controversy around his statement on Sanatan Dharma is yet to die down, DMK leader and Tamil Nadu minister Udhayanidhi Stalin on Tuesday said he had doubts if the Centre was willing to implement the women’s reservation Bill once it becomes law as they were only talking about a census and delimitation exercise.

Speaking to ANI on Tuesday, the minister for Sports and Youth Affairs in the Tamil Nadu government said, “It seems they (Centre) are not going to implement it (draft women’s reservation law) for the time being. For the last 10 years, we have been demanding such a law. They are saying that they will only do a census and delimitation exercise for now. There is no clarity on when they would implement it.”

Earlier, on Tuesday, Rajya Sabha MP and former Union minister, Kapil Sibal, also raised questions over the implementation of the proposed law, saying that any such Bill or draft legislation can only become law after a census and delimitation exercise.

“They are merely trying to extract political mileage from the tabling of this draft legislation going into the Lok Sabha elections next year. They want to tell the people, especially women that they brought this landmark law into force. They should have done it in 2014. What is so historic about it? There has to be a census and delimitation before the women’s reservation Bill is implemented. What if census and delimitation don’t happen?” Sibal said.

Earlier in the day, Union Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal introduced the Women Reservation Bill in the first sitting of Lok Sabha in the new Parliament building. The Bill was named “Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam.”

“Introducing the Bill in the Lower House during the ongoing Special Session of Parliament, the minister said, “This Bill is about women’s empowerment. By amending Article 239AA of the Constitution, 33 per cent of seats will be reserved for women in the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi. Article 330A also provides for reservation of seats for SC/ST in the House of the People.”

Meghwal said that once the ‘Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam’ is passed, the number of seats for women in Lok Sabha will increase to 181.

Speaking at a seminar in Chennai earlier, Udhayanidhi had equated Sanatan Dharma with diseases and called for it to be eradicated.

The statement drew the ire of the BJP, which demanded that he take back his words and issue a public apology.