Accusing the BJP-led NDA government of not doing enough for women empowerment in the last four years, Sushmita Dev, president of All India Mahila Congress said if Prime Minister Narendra Modi is serious about women’s rights, then he should bring the long-pending Women’s Reservation Bill in Parliament.
Dev also claimed that due to the pressure from the central government, women leaders of the BJP are not able to openly speak about crime against women unlike they did during the UPA regime.
She said, “In the last four years, have you ever heard Modi talking about the Women Reservation Bill? If he is serious about women empowerment, then he will bring the Bill in Parliament as soon as possible. The Congress party will support it in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.”
It is to be noted that during the UPA regime, the Bill, which provides 33 per cent reservation to women, was passed in the Rajya Sabha on March 9, 2010 but it lapsed after the dissolution of the 15th Lok Sabha in 2014.
“During his campaign for the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, Modi had made this a big issue and women felt that after bringing him to power their situation would improve. But in the last four years, we have seen a rise in cases of crime against women,” Dev said.
“The women leaders of the BJP like Nirmala Sitharaman, Sushma Swaraj and Smriti Irani are living under the fear of Modi and that’s why they are silent on the issue of crime against women, while these people were quite vocal during the Nirbhaya case,” she claimed.
Dev also alleged that due to the poor allocation of funds under the Modi government, schemes like “Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao” have become a joke and the government is busy spending Rs 4,600 crore on its publicity.
