BRS leader K Kavitha leads hunger strike demanding early passage of Women's Reservation bill
New Delhi (PTI): A day ahead of her appearance before the Enforcement Directorate in the excise scam case, BRS leader K Kavitha on Friday observed a hunger strike seeking passage of the long-pending Women's Reservation Bill in the second part of the Budget session of Parliament starting March 13.
CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury, who inaugurated the six-hour strike programme at Jantar Mantar here, also demanded that the Modi government should bring this bill in this session of Parliament.
Among leaders present at the strike were Shyam Rajak (RJD), Seema Shukla (SP), NCP spokesperson, Telangana Education Minister Sabitha Indra Reddy as well as state Women and Child Welfare Minister Satyavathi Rathod. Women leaders from Andhra Pradesh were also present.
Sanjay Singh and Chitra Sarwara (AAP), Naresh Gujral (Akali Dal), Anjum Javed Mirza (PDP), Shami Firdous (NC), Sushmita Dev (TMC), KC Tyagi (JDU), Seema Malik (NCP), Narayana K (CPI), Shyam Rajak (RLD), Priyanka Chaturvedi (Shiva Sena) and ex-Congress leader Kapil Sibal have confirmed their participation in strike that will end at 4 pm.
"We have come here to assure that our party will extend support to Kavitha in this protest till the bill is passed in Parliament. It is important to bring this bill to give equal opportunity to women in politics," Yechury said in his inaugural address.
When he entered Parliament for the first time in 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said his government's priority would be the Women's Reservation Bill. It has been nine years now, this bill has not been introduced again in Parliament, he said.
After much efforts, the government gave reservation for women in Panchayats. "If you can give reservation for women in Panchayats, why not in Parliament," he asked and added a country will not progress unless women are given equal opportunity in social, economic and political sphere.
It is important to bring this bill in the current session of Parliament and the CPI-M will stand besides the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) party in this protest, he added.
The second leg of the Budget session of Parliament will start on March 13 and end on April 6.
Kavitha said, "If India needs to develop at a speed the world is developing, women should play a key role in politics. Women should get more representation in politics for which it is important to bring this bill that is pending for the last 27 years."
Many political parties tried to bring this bill since 1996, but it could not be passed in Parliament. Leaders like Susma Swaraj, Sonia Gandhi, and Brinda Karat had led struggles to make it possible, she said.
"I feel elated to have an opportunity to take this movement forward. I promise the women of India that we will continue this protest until the bill is introduced and passed," she said, adding today's hunger strike is just the beginning and the protest will continue across the country.
Kavitha further said it is a historic moment to have a full majority government at the Centre. "We demand that the BJP government introduces this bill, we will bring all the political parties together and will try supporting you in Parliament," she added.
RJD leader Shyam Rajak said Indian democracy cannot be strengthen without adequate political representation of women. Reservation for women should be more than 33 per cent in Lok Sabha and state legislative assemblies.
The bill, which seeks to reserve 33 per cent seats in Lok Sabha and all state legislative assemblies for women, was initially introduced in Lok Sabha on September 12, 1996 by the United Front government.
The Vajpayee government pushed for the bill in Lok Sabha but it still wasn't passed.
However, the UPA-I government, led by Congress, again introduced it in May 2008 and was passed in the Rajya Sabha but it was referred to a standing committee. In 2010, it was passed in the House and transmitted finally to the Lok Sabha. However, the bill lapsed with the 15th Lok Sabha. Since then, the bill has been lying in cold storage.
Kavitha, the daughter of Telangana Chief Minister M K Chandrasekhar Rao, had on Thursday said the hunger strike was planned a week before but the ED summoned her to depose before it on March 9, just a day before the planned agitation. The agency agreed to her request to appear on March 11 after the agitation.
The BRS leader has been summoned by the ED in connection with a money laundering case linked to alleged irregularities in the excise policy.
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Cong cites Kangana's purported remarks to accuse BJP of wanting to bring back repealed farm laws
New Delhi, Sep 24: The Congress on Tuesday cited BJP MP Kangana Ranaut's purported remarks on farm laws to allege that the ruling party was making efforts to bring back the three laws that were repealed in 2021, and asserted that Haryana will give a befitting reply to it.
The Congress shared on X an undated video of Ranaut in which she is purportedly saying in Hindi, "Farm laws that have been repealed should be brought back. I think this may get controversial. The laws in farmers' interest be brought back. Farmers should themselves demand this (to bring farm laws back) so that there is no hindrance to their prosperity.
"Farmers are a pillar of strength in India's progress. Only in some states, they had objected to farm laws. I appeal with folded hands that farm laws should be brought back in the interest of farmers."
In a post in Hindi along with the video, the Congress said, "The three black laws imposed on farmers should be brought back: BJP MP Kangana Ranaut has said this. More than 750 farmers of the country were martyred, only then did the Modi government wake up and these black laws were withdrawn."
Now BJP MPs are planning to bring back these laws, the Congress alleged.
"The Congress is with the farmers. These black laws will never return, no matter how hard Narendra Modi and his MPs try," the opposition party said on X.
Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate also shared the video of Ranaut on X and said, "'All three farm laws should be brought back': BJP MP Kangana Ranaut. More than 750 farmers were martyred while protesting against the three black farmer laws. Efforts are being made to bring them back."
"We will never let that happen. Haryana will answer first," she said in an apparent reference to the assembly polls in Haryana.
Congress' media and publicity department head Pawan Khera also shared the video on X and said it was the BJP's "real thinking".
"How many times will you deceive the farmers, you two-faced people?" Khera said in a post in Hindi.
The three laws -- Farmer's Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act; The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Act; and The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act -- were repealed in November 2021.
The farmers' protest started at the fag-end of November 2020 and ended after Parliament repealed the three laws. The legislations came into force in June 2020 and were repealed in November 2021.
“तीनों किसान क़ानून वापस लाये जाने चाहिए” : BJP MP कंगना रनौत
— Supriya Shrinate (@SupriyaShrinate) September 24, 2024
जिन तीन काले किसान विरोधी क़ानूनों की मुख़ालिफ़त करते 750 से ज़्यादा किसान शहीद हो गए
उनको दोबारा से लाने की कोशिश की जा रही है. हम ऐसा कभी नहीं होने देंगे
सबसे पहला जवाब हरियाणा देगा pic.twitter.com/kRAkRuE2cc
