New Delhi: BJP MP Kangana Ranaut on Thursday attacked the Congress for questioning the government’s intention behind introducing a bill to amend the women’s reservation law, and wondered why the opposition party kept the matter hanging for three decades when it was in power.
Participating in a debate in the Lok Sabha on three bills introduced for amendments to the women’s quota law and setting up a delimitation commission, the actor-politician said, “Sonia Gandhi says why are they (BJP) in a hurry to bring the bill. Should we be like you and let it hang for 30 years?”
Ranaut also said she feels that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is hurrying to deliver justice for women.
“What didn’t happen in 60 years, he achieved in 10 – be it pucca houses, providing gas cylinders, or inducting women into defence forces. One thing is certain: he is in a hurry to give justice to women.”
Claiming that no one is a bigger feminist than Modi, she said, “He (the prime minister) is the flagbearer of feminism.”
The MP from Himachal Pradesh’s Mandi also said that this is the “best time to be a woman”, and highlighted the dismal representation of women in the state Assemblies.
“In Himachal Pradesh, we have 68 MLAs of which only one is a woman. The other states have a similar representation of 8-9 per cent,” she claimed.
The debate followed after the Centre introduced the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill to mandate 33 per cent reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and state/UT Assemblies in the Lower House after a division of votes.
Two ordinary bills – the Delimitation Bill and the Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill to implement the proposed amended women’s quota in the Union territories of Delhi, Puducherry and Jammu and Kashmir – were also introduced in the House on Thursday.
