Mumbai, Oct 2: Maharashtra Pradesh Congress women’s wing president, Sandhya Savvalakhe, on Monday took a swipe at the Narendra Modi-led central government on issue of women’s reservation, alleging that women’s reservation is yet another empty promise by the Modi government.
Addressing a press conference at the party’s head office here, she said that if the Modi government was really serious about women’s reservation, it should have removed hurdles of the Census and delimitation of constituencies and implemented it immediately.
So far, all announcements made by the Modi government have turned out to be empty promises, she charged and said that no one has benefitted from the schemes announced by them other than their industrialist friends.
The declaration made by the Modi government to give reservation to women is yet another mere slogan, she alleged and claimed that due to the Census and delimitation hurdles, women will not get reservation for many years to come, which is tantamount to betrayal of the entire women community.
On the contrary, the Congress leader said that her party has always provided women with equal opportunities as compared to men.
It was the Congress party which gave the country its first female prime minister, first female President and first female Speaker of the Lok Sabha, she asserted.
It was late prime minister Rajiv Gandhi who took the revolutionary decision of granting 33 per cent reservation to women in local self-government institutions, Ms Savvalakhe pointed.
Subsequently, Sonia Gandhi, during the UPA government’s tenure, got the Women’s Reservation Bill passed in the Rajya Sabha, she said.
“Over the past nine years, Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi consistently advocated for women’s reservation. Due to their relentless efforts, the Modi government was felt compelled to consider women’s reservation. The Women’s Reservation Bill was unanimously passed in both the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, and all political parties, including the Congress party, supported the reservation,” she added.
