Congress’ stance on women’s bill reflects feudal thinking: BJP

NEW DELHI: The Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday accused the Congress of “betraying” women and slammed the party and its allies for celebrating the failure of a constitutional amendment bill that sought to implement women’s reservation in the Lok Sabha and Parliament and increase the number of seats in the Lok Sabha by 50 per cent. “The Congress is smiling triumphantly, banging on the table and celebrating the crushing of the political aspirations of common women. The Congress and its allies are celebrating the fact that women who have struggled in politics for years and are demanding only 33 per cent reservation in Parliament are being denied their rights,” said the BJP’s Smriti Irani. Federal Minister Kiren Rijiju said the opposition parties had done a “stain” on themselves by passing the bill and they could not wash it away. “We are sad but we do not see this as a failure of the party and the government. They have hurt women in this country. We want to honor women and empower them. We will continue to do that,” he said, calling the Congress “anti-women”. Irani criticized the opposition’s stance as reflecting “feudal thinking”, claiming the opposition views constitutional rights as political favors rather than entitlements. The Bharatiya Janata Party’s Ravi Shankar Prasad criticized Priyanka Gandhi’s remarks, questioning her allegation that the party exploited women for political gain. “Indian women cannot be treated as commodities,” he said