CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury speaks throughout a hunger strike led by Bharat Rashtra Samithi leader Okay. Kavitha looking for early passage of the Women’s Reservation Bill, in New Delhi, on March 10, 2023.
| Photo Credit: PTI
A day forward of her look earlier than the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the excise rip-off case, Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leader Okay. Kavitha on March 10 noticed a hunger strike looking for passage of the long-pending Women’s Reservation Bill in the second half of the Budget session of Parliament ranging from March 13.
 CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury, who inaugurated the six-hour strike programme at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi, additionally demanded that the Modi authorities ought to deliver this Bill in this session of the Parliament.
Among leaders current on the strike had been Shyam Rajak (RJD), Seema Shukla (SP), Telangana Education Minister Sabitha Indra Reddy in addition to State Women and Child Welfare Minister Satyavathi Rathod and others. Women leaders from Andhra Pradesh had been additionally current.
Sanjay Singh and Chitra Sarwara (AAP), Naresh Gujral (Akali Dal), Anjum Javed Mirza (PDP), Shami Firdous (NC), Sushmita Dev (TMC), KC Tyagi (JDU), Seema Malik (NCP), Narayana Okay (CPI), Shyam Rajak (RLD), Priyanka Chaturvedi (Shiva Sena) and ex-Congress leader Kapil Sibal have confirmed their participation in strike that can finish at 4 p.m.
“We have come here to assure that our party will extend support to Ms. Kavitha in this protest till the Bill is passed in Parliament. It is important to bring this Bill to give equal opportunity to women in politics,” Mr. Yechury mentioned in his inaugural handle.
When he entered Parliament for the primary time in 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had mentioned his authorities’s precedence can be the Women’s Reservation Bill. It has been 9 years now, this Bill has not been launched once more in Parliament, he mentioned.
After a lot efforts, the federal government gave reservation for girls in Panchayats. “If you can give reservation for women in Panchayats, why not in Parliament,” he requested and added a rustic won’t progress until girls are given equal alternative in social-, economic- and political sphere.
“It is important to bring this Bill in the current session of Parliament and the CPI-M will stand besides the BRS party in this protest,” he added. The second leg of the Budget session of Parliament will begin on March 13 and finish on April 6.
Ms. Kavitha mentioned, “If India needs to develop at a speed the world is developing, women should play a key role in politics. Women should get more representation in politics for which it is important to bring this Bill that is pending for the last 27 years.”
Many political events tried to deliver this Bill since 1996, but it surely couldn’t be handed in Parliament. “Leaders such as Susma Swaraj, Sonia Gandhi, and Brinda Karat had led struggles to make it possible,” she mentioned.
“I feel elated to have an opportunity to take this movement forward. I promise the women of India that we will continue this protest until the Bill is introduced and passed,” she mentioned, including as we speak’s hunger strike is just the start and the protest will proceed throughout the nation.
Ms. Kavitha additional mentioned it’s a historic second to have a full majority authorities on the Centre. “We demand that the BJP government introduces this Bill, we will bring all the political parties together and will try supporting you in Parliament,” she added.
RJD leader Shyam Rajak mentioned Indian democracy can’t be strengthen with out satisfactory political illustration of girls. Reservation for girls ought to be greater than 33% in Lok Sabha and State Legislative Assemblies.
The Bill, which seeks to order 33% seats in Lok Sabha and all State Legislative Assemblies for girls, was initially launched in Lok Sabha on September 12, 1996 by the United Front authorities. The Vajpayee authorities pushed for the Bill in Lok Sabha but it surely nonetheless wasn’t handed.
    However, the UPA-I authorities, led by the Congress, once more launched it in May 2008 and was handed in the Rajya Sabha but it surely was referred to a standing committee. In 2010, it was handed in the House and transmitted lastly to the Lok Sabha. However, the Bill lapsed with the fifteenth Lok Sabha. Since then, the Bill has been mendacity in chilly storage.
  Ms. Kavitha, the daughter of Telangana Chief Minister M. Okay. Chandrasekhar Rao, had on Thursday mentioned the hunger strike was deliberate every week earlier than however the ED summoned her to depose earlier than it on March 9, only a day earlier than the deliberate agitation. The company agreed to her request to look on March 11 after the agitation.
  The BRS leader has been summoned by the ED in reference to a money-laundering case linked to alleged irregularities in the excise coverage.
