Ahead of her appearance before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the Delhi liquor scam case, Bharat Rashtra Samithi leader K Kavitha commenced a daylong hunger strike at Jantar Mantar in Delhi demanding the introduction of the Women’s Reservation Bill in Parliament.
Stating that if India needs to develop at par with global players, women should play a key role in politics, the Telangana Chief Minister’s daughter said, “So, it is important to bring this bill which is pending for the last 27 years.”
She added that this is just the beginning and the protest will continue across the country. “We will take this movement all over India until the women’s reservation bill is passed,” Kavitha told a gathering at the sit-in protest.
The protest was organised by the non-governmental organisation (NGO) Bharat Jagruti.
Leaders from the CPI-(M), BRS, Shiv Sena, and the Aam Aadmi Party
Assuring CPI(M)’s support and commitment for pressurising the Centre to pass the Bill, Yechury said the Centre had granted reservation for women in panchayats after much effort. “If you can give reservation for women in panchayats, why not in Parliament? The country will not progress unless women are given equal opportunity in social, economic and political spheres,” he asserted.
Yechury also said that the Union Government is misusing government agencies and harassing leaders.
Shameful Act
Meanwhile, YSR Telangana Party chief YS Sharmila slammed KCR, Kavitha, and the BRS party for their lack of respect for women, saying that KCR had allotted only six seats to women in the 2014 polls, four seats in the 2018 polls, and there were no women ministers in the first cabinet.
Accusing Kavita of using the 33% bill as a diversion tactic only to save herself, Sharmila said that the whole point of fighting for the Women’s Reservation Bill came about because Kavitha has to appear before the agency on Saturday. She added that for a woman to be involved in a liquor scam is shameful. “The women of Telangana are ashamed of her, they are ashamed that K. Chandrashekar Rao is their chief minister. People are humiliated.”
The BRS leader has been summoned by the ED so that she can be confronted with Hyderabad-based businessman Arun Ramchandran Pillai, an alleged frontman of the South Group, a liquor cartel linked to Kavitha and others. Pillai was arrested by the ED on Monday.
The agency alleged that Pillai is a key person in the racket, involving payments of huge kickbacks and the formation of the biggest cartel of the South Group.
The ED will record Kavitha’s statement under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) during this confrontation.