New Delhi [India], April 29 : Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Wednesday refuted Union Minister Kiren Rijiju's claim that the former indirectly admitted that his party is "anti-women".
Speaking to the reporters here, Tharoor clarified that the conversation between them occurred in a light-hearted manner and at no point did he imply that the party is "anti-women".
"Kiren and I have no misunderstanding with each other. We were joking with each other. The session was over. We were leaving. We were joking that no one would consider me anti-woman, which is true. But at the same time, no one will consider my party anti-women either," he said.
This development comes after Kiren Rijiju had stated that Tharoor had allegedly agreed in principle that the Congress could be seen as "anti-women" in the debate over the women's reservation not being operationalised through the Constitution 131st Amendment Bill, which didn't pass in Parliament.
Tharoor reflected Congress' constant support of the women's reservation, stating that the party only opposed the delimitation process linked to the Constitution Amendment Bill.
"We've been led by women, strong women, and we have strongly advocated the Women's Reservation Bill, both back in 2013 when we passed it in the Rajya Sabha, and subsequently, we supported it when this government passed it in the Lok Sabha. We are very much in favour of the Women's Reservation Bill. All that we opposed was the linking to delimitation, which we believe the government was doing unnecessarily hastily in pushing through. Using women's reservations as an excuse to push through delimitation was not at all a good thing. So if there's a women's reservation by itself, we will vote for it tomorrow," Tharoor said.
Tharoor found himself on the back foot after Rijiju posted a clip of his interview with ANI, recalling the conversation with the Congress MP.
"Dr ShashiTharoor and I had agreed on one point. He is definitely not anti-women. May be because he is highly popular amongst women, or Vice Versa !!" Rijiju posted on X along with the interview clip.
"Shashi Tharoor said to me after the Parliament session ended that no woman would consider him anti-women. I replied that yes, I agree that no one would call you anti-women, but your party is anti-women. In a way, he accepted what I said, and I accepted what he said," Rijiju had said in the interview with ANI.
During the special session of Parliament held on April 16-18, a Constitutional Amendment Bill aiming to increase the number of Lok Sabha seats from 543 to 850 and operationalise the women's reservation law was defeated in Lok Sabha.
The opposition rejected linking women's reservation to expanding the size of the Lok Sabha.
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