SP, BSP question Modi govt’s intention on Women’s Reservation Bill

The two main Uttar Pradesh opposition parties, Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party, have raised questions over the intention of the Narendra Modi-led government on the implementation of Women’s Reservation Bill in the country.

Questioning the provisions of the bill presented in Parliament, both the parties accused the Union government of trying to fool the people, especially women, and demanded quota for women from other backward communities, scheduled castes, and scheduled tribes be included in the bill.

SP chief Akhilesh Yadav termed it a “half-baked bill”, on Tuesday. In a post on X, Yadav said: “Women’s reservation should be a balance of gender justice and social justice. In this [bill], reservation for the backward, dalits, minorities, tribals, and women should be clear in definite percentage form.”

On Tuesday, he again posted his displeasure on the bill on X and said: “On the very first day of the new Parliament, the BJP government has started its innings with a ‘grand lie’. When the Women’s Reservation Bill cannot be implemented without census and delimitation [of Lok Sabha seats], which will take many years, then why did the BJP government need to lie to women in this emergency? The BJP government is neither in favour of census nor caste enumeration. Without these, women’s reservation is not possible.”

He then further added: “This half-baked bill is a mockery of a serious issue like ‘women’s reservation’. Women will respond to it by voting against BJP in the upcoming elections.”

Meanwhile, the BSP supremo, Mayawati, too questioned the Modi government’s intentions regarding the Women’s Reservation Bill.

On Wednesday, she told reporters that there are many provisions in the bill which will take 15–16 years for women to get benefits. She said that the bill has been said to be implemented after completing the census and delimitation. She then demanded that the government should remove this provision.

The BSP president then accused both the BJP and the Congress of not wanting to give reservation to women. “This bill is going to tempt women and hoodwink,” she said.

Mayawati further said the census has not been done yet and it will take many years for the delimitation [of constituencies] to be completed. She then demanded that a separate quota be fixed for women belonging to the OBC community.