Guwahati (Assam) [India], April 20 : Assam Pradesh Mahila Congress President Meera Barthakur has slammed the BJP over the Women's Reservation Amendment Bill, accusing the party of spreading "utter falsehoods" to mislead the public.
Using a sharp metaphor to describe the ruling party's tactics, she remarked that the BJP acts "like the snake that bites and the charmer that heals." She asserted that the people have understood the BJP's strategy, hence, it has left the BJP in a "state of frenzy" as they are now facing increasing public scrutiny over their actions.
Addressing a press conference at the Manabendra Sarma Complex, Barthakur alleged that the BJP is manufacturing a "false narrative" that the opposition lacks respect for women. She claimed the ruling party is attempting to project a "pure" image by shifting the entire blame to Congress for the legislative hurdles facing the bill. "We categorically deny this," she asserted, dismissing the BJP's accusations as a political ploy.
She recalled that Rajkumari Amrit Kaur was the Health Minister in the cabinet of India's first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru. The Congress party has been working for the advancement of women since the very beginning. Barthakur questioned why the Women's Reservation Bill, passed by 454 MPs on September 21, 2023, has not been implemented to date, and why the BJP has entangled it in bureaucratic red tape by linking it to delimitation.
She pointed out that currently, the percentage of women MPs in Parliament is 12% for the BJP and 14.09% for the Congress. In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP fielded only one woman candidate in Assam, whereas the Congress fielded two. Looking at the upcoming Assembly elections, the BJP, which talks incessantly about women, has given tickets to only 6 women, while the Congress has fielded 13.
Highlighting that the 33% reservation for women in the Panchayati Raj system was initiated during the Congress regime, she noted that the first woman President of the Congress party was Annie Besant. The nation's first female Prime Minister, the first female Chief Minister (Sucheta Kripalani), the first female Lok Sabha Speaker (Meira Kumar), and the first female President (Pratibha Patil) were all products of the Congress party. She asserted that the idea of 33% reservation was the Congress's vision, which the BJP is now trying to "hijack."
Referring to the Prime Minister's 29-minute speech yesterday, Barthakur asked whether Modi, who blames the Congress every minute, has any real devotion or respect for women. She challenged him to look at his own household to judge his own values.
She further criticised the BJP, noting that after women were paraded naked in Manipur, neither Modi nor Amit Shah had time to check on the victims. She added that the BJP, which used police to drag female wrestlers at Jantar Mantar when they protested against harassment by a BJP leader, should not speak about love for women. She also questioned which party garlanded the rapists of Bilkis Bano in Gujarat and expressed shock at how the BJP, which remained silent during the Unnao and Hathras incidents, can speak of women's honour today.
Regarding the death of police officer Junmoni Rabha in Assam, Barthakur stated that every journalist in Assam knows which BJP leaders rushed to the officer's family, without even delving into the details of the incident, being labelled an "accident." She also criticised the PM and Amit Shah for not finding time to visit Garima Saikia Garg, the wife of Zubeen Garg, during this time of personal grief, despite their frequent visits to Assam.
Barthakur alleged that under the guise of reservation, the BJP wanted to increase the number of Lok Sabha seats to 850 based on the 2011 census and provide 33% reservation from those seats.
She claimed that the BJP planned to manipulate the delimitation process to suit their own political strongholds, just as they did in Jammu and Kashmir and Assam. She cited the example of the newly formed "Central Guwahati" constituency, where they redrew boundaries to include their vote banks.
She emphasised that Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi, Deputy Leader Gaurav Gogoi, and MP Priyanka Gandhi have stated that the opposition has no objection if the Women's Reservation Bill, passed in 2023, is implemented immediately based on the current 543 Lok Sabha seats. However, the BJP lacks the courage to do so.
Barthakur urged the people of Assam not to be swayed by the BJP's narrative, reaffirming that the Congress has always stood with women and will continue to do so.
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