Women’s Bill possible with Sonia, not Modi: Kavitha

HYDERABAD: The Women's Reservation Bill can be passed in less than 10 minutes if the Narendra Modi-led BJP government at the Centre is sincere as it has an absolute majority in both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha.

The current dispensation at the Centre is not sincere in this regard, but the task can be accomplished with the combined efforts of women leaders like Brinda Karat, Sonia Gandhi, Jayanthi Natarajan, BRS MLC and Bharat Jagruthi founder Kalvakuntla Kavitha stated on Friday as she sat on a day-long hunger strike at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi.

Speaking to the gathering at Jantar Mantar, Kavitha demanded that the BJP-led government at the Centre introduce and pass the Women's Reservation Bill, which would guarantee 33 per cent reservation to women in Parliament and Assemblies, during the current Budget session of Parliament.

Kavitha vowed to continue her agitational programmes until the Bill was enacted in the Parliament, claiming that the dharna in the national capital was just the beginning.

She said that the Parliament would meet for two more sessions during the winter and vote-on-account Budget session before the general elections in 2024, and she would continue to undertake various agitation programmes until then to step up pressure on the Modi government to pass the Bill.

Kavitha sat on dharna for six hours from 10 am to 4 pm, and a large number of women as well as representatives from several political parties took part in the dharna to express their solidarity with Kavitha. Women leaders from the BRS, including ministers, MLAs, MLCs, and MPs, joined Kavitha.

She sat on a dharna after garlanding the statues of some renowned women leaders with flowers. The day-long dharna of Kavitha began with veteran Communist leader and CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury extending his support.

In her address to the crowd, Kavitha thanked all the political parties that had expressed support for her agitation and described her efforts as a historic imperative to achieve something that had been on hanging fire for the past 27 years. The Bill was drafted when  H.D. Deve Gowda was the PM 27 years ago, but could not be passed in Parliament due  to several factors.

Yechury said he would stand with Kavitha until the Bill was passed in Parliament. “Unless equal opportunity is given to women in social, fiscal and political spheres, no country can progress. PM Modi himself extended his support for the Women’s Reservation Bill when he assumed office as the PM in 2014. But, even after nine years, the PM did not make any attempts in this direction," he remarked.