Union Home Minister on Wednesday said that the passage of the Women’s Reservation Bill will mark the start of a new era, appealing to all political parties to rise above partisan politics and support the Bill.
While speaking during the Special Session of the Parliament in the new Parliament building, Shah asserted that women’s security, respect, equal participation have been life force of government since Prime Minister Narendra Modi took oath of office.
“Yesterday was a day which will be written with golden letters in India’s parliamentary history as the Women’s Reservation Bill, which was pending for years, was tabled,” he said.
The union minister said that for the BJP, the matter of women empowerment was not a political agenda. “For some parties, the issue of women empowerment can be a political agenda or a slogan to win elections. However, for my party and my leader Narendra Modi, women empowerment is not a political issue,” he said.
Shah said that the Women’s Reservation Bill was brought to Parliament four times earlier but was not passed, and urged all political parties to unanimously support the Bill.
On the OBC issue, Shah also hit out at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and said, “Some people think secretaries run country, I think govt does; 85 BJP MPs, 29 ministers from OBC.”
Those claiming to speak for OBCs should know that it is BJP which gave an OBC prime minister, Shah said in the Lok Sabha.
Earlier, speaking during the debate on the Women’s Reservation Bill and said that he was “shocked” to find that out of the 90 secretaries in the government of India, only three are OBCs.
“All those who are talking about OBC, have themselves never appointed a Prime Minister from the OBC community. It is the BJP, who did it. I plead MPs from all the parties that if they think that there is something missing in this (Women’s Reservation Bill), then we can rectify it tomorrow, but this bill is a matter of women’s respect so I request you all to support it,” says Union Home minister Amit Shah in Lok Sabha during debate on Women’s Reservation Bill.
The constitutional amendment bill, which provides for 33 per cent reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and state Assemblies, was introduced in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday. According to the bill, it will come into effect after the delimitation of Lok Sabha constituencies to be carried out after the completion of the next population census.