‘Using women as bait’: Opposition slams PM Modi over reservation bill address

New Delhi: Opposition leaders on Saturday slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speech on the women’s reservation bill, in which he accused the TMC, Congress, DMK and their allies of committing “feticide” by not allowing the quota bill to be passed in the Lok Sabha.TMC MP Derek O Brien said: “Narendra, the worst form of insulting women is to use them as bait* to try to pass the delimitation bill.”TMC MP Mahua Moitra dismissed the Prime Minister’s speech as “dramebaazi” and added that “women reservation was passed in 2023 and notified 2 days ago”.“Hello @narendramodi – Your dramabaazi and Godi media scripts will not hide the truth – Women reservation has been passed in 2023 and notified 2 days ago. There is nothing stopping you from implementing it now, as the TMC has done by allocating 1/3 of the 543 seats to women,” she said. In his speech, Prime Minister Modi termed the failure of the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill in the Lok Sabha, which sought to reserve 33 per cent seats for women ahead of the 2029 polls and expand the seats to 816, as a major setback for women across the country and apologized for the failure to ensure the passage of the bill despite the government’s efforts.“Today, I come to address the mothers, sisters and daughters of this country. Today, every citizen of India has seen how the dream of women’s empowerment in India has been ruthlessly crushed. Despite our best efforts, we failed. For this, I sincerely apologize to all the mothers and sisters,” he said.“For us, national interest comes first. But for some, when party interests become everything, women empowerment and national interest suffer. That has happened this time too. The selfish politics of parties like Congress, DMK, TMC and SP have cost the women of this country,” he added.