'100% regret' over exclusion of OBC quota in UPA women’s reservation bill: Rahul
Congress leader demands the government to remove the clauses of Census and Delimitation from the recently-passed Bill to ensure its quick implementation.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday (September 22) demanded that the Women's Reservation Bill be implemented immediately and alleged that the government does not want to do this while distracting from the demand for caste census.
Addressing the press a day after the Bill was passed in Rajya Sabha, Rahul said he welcomes the Bill but doesn’t appreciate the two "footnotes" of Census and Delimitation attached to it as these will stall the proposed legislation for years.
“Women's Reservation Bill is great, but we received two footnotes that Census and Delimitation need to be done before that. Both of these will take years. The truth is that the reservation can be implemented today...This is not a complicated matter, but the government doesn't want to do that. The government has presented this before the country, but it will be implemented 10 years from now. Nobody knows if this will even be implemented. This is a distraction tactic, diversion tactic,” he told reporters.
He demanded the Narendra Modi government to remove the two contentious clauses from the Bill and implement it with immediate effect.
“The problem is the implementation. What they have said is – we are placing a Bill on the Floor of the House, but we will implement it 10 years from now. What does that mean?...We agree with the Bill, remove these two clauses (on Census and Delimitation) and make it happen today and don't insult the intelligence of India's women..." Rahul said.
‘Regret exclusion of quota for OBC in UPA’s Bill’
Asked about exclusion of the quota for OBC in the Women’s Reservation Bill brought by the UPA government in 2010, Rahul said he regrets the miss while promising to ensure that the same will be introduced this time around.
“100% regret hai. This should have been done then. We will get this done," he said.
Making a pitch for the quota, he said, “What is it that you are being diverted from? From OBC Census. I spoke of one institution in Parliament, that which runs the Government of India - Cabinet secretary and secretaries...I asked why only three out of 90 people belong to the OBC community?...I don't understand that PM Modi speaks of OBCs every day but what did he do for them?"
The Congress has said that Delimitation and Census were "poor excuses" for the postponement of the women's quota and alleged that the entire exercise was to create an election issue, without actually implementing it.
The opposition party also dubbed the bill as a "teasing illusion".
The bill to reserve one-third of the seats in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies for women received the parliamentary nod on Thursday as the Rajya Sabha unanimously voted in its favour.
(With inputs from agencies)
