Former PM Deve Gowda urges Modi to consider passing Women's Reservation Bill before 2024 LS polls
Bengaluru, Apr 15: Former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda has urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to consider passing the Women's Reservation Bill, before the 2024 general (Lok Sabha) elections.
Pointing out that the government led by Modi enjoys a majority in Parliament and may be successful in passing it, the JD(S) patriarch in his letter to the Prime Minister said, to accord one third reservation to women in legislative assemblies and parliament is an idea whose time has come.
"When the Election Commission announced polls in Karnataka recently, and released the number of eligible women voters in the State, it was not a surprise that they were nearly fifty per cent of the total electorate. The statistics are not different in other states of India. This made me revisit the idea of reservations for women in legislative assemblies and parliament," Gowda said.
In a letter dated April 10 which was released on Saturday, he highlighted that as Prime Minister he had brought the Women's Reservation Bill to Parliament in 1996, but was unsuccessful in seeing it through. The attempts that were made later in 2008 by the UPA government under Prime Minister Manmohan Singh did not reach a logical conclusion either.
Both times when an attempt was made to pass the Bill, governments did not have a majority and were dependent on their coalition partners, Gowda said. "In your (Modi) case, you are lucky to have a majority in parliament and may be successful in passing it," he said.
"Therefore, I urge you to consider passing the Women's Reservation Bill before the 2024 general elections. Suitable modifications can be made to the drafts of the Bill presented in 1996 and 2008. To adhere to the principles of social justice will be key to the success of this great move for gender justice," he said.
To accord one third reservation to women in legislative assemblies and parliament is an idea whose time has come, he further said adding that, "It will be a symbolic gesture to bring in this Bill, and pass it, as we transition into a new and very modern Parliament building. Our mothers and sisters deserve better from us."
The former Prime Minister also asserted that considering the Women's Reservation Bill when India holds the G20 leadership will send a positive signal to the world. "It will tell the world that we are serious about our democracy and wish to deepen it."
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Sharad Pawar praised RSS after seeing how it burst fake narrative balloon of LS polls: Fadnavis
Nagpur, Jan 10: Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday said NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar praised the RSS after realising how the outfit managed to overcome the fake narrative spread by the opposition in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
The opposition had claimed BJP wanted to win 400 seats to change the Constitution and end reservations, a narrative which BJP leaders later claimed hit the party hard.
On Pawar praising the RSS recently, the CM said the MVA was successful in creating a fake narrative during the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
"When assembly polls were approaching, many people from diverse fields who are inspired by the RSS played their role and burst the balloon of this fake narrative. Sharad Pawar saheb is very intelligent. He would have certainly studied this aspect. He realised that this (RSS) is not a regular political power but a nationalist power. In any competition it is good to praise others," he added.
That is why Pawar may have praised the RSS, Fadnavis said.
Speaking at an interaction with senior editor Vivek Ghalsasi at Late Vilasji Fadnis Jivhala programme here, Fadnavis also said he had asked for organisational work when Eknath Shinde was made chief minister in June 2022, but senior leaders asked him to join the government.
He also said Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked him not to behave like an extra-constitutional authority in the government.
He said the decision to become deputy chief minister on the command of the party leadership earned him a lot of praise from the cadre.
After the massive mandate the ruling alliance received in the 2024 assembly polls, Fadnavis said people and party workers would not have been happy if the CM was not from the BJP.
Shinde himself agreed within minutes that the CM must be from the BJP, which itself got 132 seats and was close to a majority of its own in the 288-member assembly, he added.
On Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray meeting him during the winter sessions of the legislature in Nagpur, Fadnavis said he had announced he would not indulge in politics of revenge after becoming CM and all leaders responded positively to it.
On chances of the NCP (SP) and NCP coming closer or reuniting, Fadnavis said, "If you see the developments that took place from 2019 to 2024, I realised never say never and anything can happen. Uddhav Thackeray goes to some other party and Ajit Pawar comes to us. In politics anything can happen though I am not saying this should happen."
He praised BJP leader Arun Gujarati from whom he learnt patience, which he claimed was an important quality in politics along with the ability to take criticism.
In a lighter vein, he said, "I only get angry when I am hungry. If you see me angry then give me something to eat and my anger will go away."
