Hyderabad: Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS) leader K Kavitha announced on Thursday that she would hold a one-day hunger strike demanding a discussion on the Women's Reservation Bill in the current session of Parliament. She will hold the strike under the aegis of the NGO Bharat Jagruthi in New Delhi, PTI reported.
She said, "As a mark of protest, Bharat Jagruthi will do a peaceful sit-down protest at Jantar Mantar in Delhi on March 10. We are inviting women's organisations and various political parties across 29 states. We are inviting everybody who believes in the empowerment of women as much as we do."
She said that the Bill, which offers 33 per cent representation for women in Parliament and state Assemblies, has been pending for 27 years. After it was introduced in 1996, four committees were formed to study it, but no outcome has happened yet. The Bill was passed in Rajya Sabha in 2010 but faced a halt after the dissolution of the 15th Lok Sabha in 2014.
The BRS MLC, daughter of Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, further said, If we want to grow at par with other nations, we demand that the Women's Reservation Bill be introduced in this session of Parliament. We feel in women's empowerment, political empowerment is a critical aspect. Everyone is talking, but no one is protesting on the ground. We want to do it for the women, and we are committed to it."
She cited the BJP manifesto of the 2014 and 2019 general elections and said that the party has not acted on it yet. "At least now you (BJP) should act upon it and make sure the Women's Reservation Bill is tabled in this Parliament session or the next one," she said.
She slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi that he Modi speaks about "Nari Shakti" from the Red Fort but doing nothing for women's empowerment.
She said that BJP could single-handedly pass the Bill in Parliament just like they did the controversial Farm Laws, but they have no intention to. "It is easy for them (BJP). But they are not willing to do. They do not want women to come forward. That is the message we are getting from Narendra Modiji," she said.
She then said that the BRS party, under the leadership of Chief Minister KCR, has passed a resolution in the Telangana Assembly. It stated that whenever the Lok Sabha passes the Bill, the party will support it. KCR also suggested an alternative solution of increasing the number of MP seats by 33 per cent to accommodate women, the MLC Kavitha said.