Defeat for delimitation, not women’s reservation, says a triumphant opposition | India News
NEW DELHI: A victorious opposition party hailed the defeat of the Constitutional Amendment Bill as a defeat for restrictions and not women’s protection.After the opposition won the polls, Congress’ Rahul Gandhi spoke to TMC’s Abhishek Banerjee and thanked him for his support.There were concerns that only a few of the 28 TMC MPs might make it to Parliament because of the election campaign in Bengal. But the TMC sent 21 MPs after repeated requests from members of the Bharat Bloc who had impressed upon Mamata Banerjee that debate and voter turnout were crucial to defeating the Modi government’s plans. Sources said Banerjee told Rahul, “the tide is turning against the BJP”.SP’s Akhilesh Yadav called it a “defeat of hatred for the BJP”. RSP’s NK Premachandran said the failure to pass the bill shows that the BJP needs to consult the opposition on important issues in the country. He said, this defeat is not about women’s quota, but about limitations.Congress’s Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of maliciously linking quota restrictions for women based on the 2011 census. “But his hollow attempt to present women as messiahs has failed today,” he said. He added that democracy in India would not have survived if the three bills had been passed by Parliament.CPI MP Sandosh Kumar said the collapse of the government law showed there was strong opposition to any attempt to change the balance of representation. He said the women of the country should see through the BJP’s approach of delaying the quota for women by linking it with census and delimitation.DMK chief MK Stalin, who has led protests in Tamil Nadu, said his party’s concern was about restrictions, “which need careful thought to ensure, especially for southern states”. He said, the government should have removed the quota for women from the border.
