Govt hurrying women's quota law implementation for political mileage: Kharge to PM
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New Delhi (PTI): Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge has conveyed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi that calling Parliament's special sitting amid state polls reinforces belief that the government is hurrying the implementation of women's reservation law for "political mileage".
In a letter to PM Modi, Kharge reiterated the demand that an all-party meeting be called to discuss the delimitation issue, which is being linked to the amendments to the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, 2023, after April 29.
Kharge's letter came in response to a missive from the prime minister on the special sitting of Parliament for a discussion on the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam from April 16.
"I have just received your letter on the special session of Parliament for a discussion on the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam from the 16th of April," the Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha said in his letter to Modi dated April 11.
"As you are aware, the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, 2023 was passed by Parliament unanimously in September 2023. At that time, on behalf of the Indian National Congress, I had demanded that this important law should become effective immediately," Kharge said.
The Congress president pointed out that though in his letter, the PM has mentioned that there was broad consensus for its immediate implementation, he did not implement the same.
"It has been 30 months since then, and now this special sitting has been called without taking us into confidence and your government is seeking our cooperation again without revealing any details on the delimitation going to be done. You will appreciate that without details of the delimitation and other aspects, it would be impossible to have any useful discussion on this historic law," Kharge said.
"You mention in your letter that your government has engaged in dialogue with political parties regarding this. However, I am pained to point out that this goes against the truth since all the Opposition parties have been urging the government to call an all-party meeting after the current round of elections is over on April 29th, 2026 to discuss the Constitution amendments being contemplated," he said.
The calling of a special sitting during the ongoing state elections only reinforces the Congress' belief that the government is hurrying the implementation of the law to gain "political mileage" rather than truly empower women, Kharge said.
"I am also pained to write that the past record of the government in matters of public importance whether it is demonetisation, GST, census or even those pertaining to the federal structure like implementing Finance Commission recommendations and tax devolutions, does not inspire any confidence," the Congress chief said.
The constitutional amendments being planned will affect both the Centre and the states and it is important that all parties and states, however small they may be, are heard in a democracy, Kharge asserted.
"If the special sitting is meant to 'strengthen our democracy' and 'moving forward together, taking everyone along' as you write in the letter, then I would suggest that the government convene an all-party meeting any time after April 29th to discuss the delimitation issue which is being linked to the amendment to the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, 2023," Kharge said.
The exchange of letters between the PM and Kharge comes days ahead of the three-day sitting of Parliament, during which the government is set to bring bills to implement the Women's Reservation Act before the 2029 parliamentary polls and increase the number of Lok Sabha seats to 816, with 273 reserved for women.
The Congress last week had accused the Narendra Modi government of playing politics in the name of women's reservation law and asserted that the proposed delimitation exercise linked to it was "not constitutional" and could have "grave consequences" that warrant thorough deliberation after the ongoing assembly polls.
At a Congress Working Committee meeting, it was decided that Kharge would call a meeting of top leaders of all opposition parties, most likely on April 15, to discuss and formulate a joint strategy for the "special session" of Parliament from April 16 to 18.
While elections in Puducherry, Assam and Kerala were held on April 9, polls in West Bengal will be held in two phases on April 23 and April 29. In Tamil Nadu, polls will be held in a single phase on April 23.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
