Backward castes need sub-reservation in women's reservation: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah

Bengaluru: Although the women's reservation bill presented by the central government in the Lok Sabha is a welcome decision, if the women of the backward castes are not given internal reservation, not only will injustice be done to the women of this community, the very purpose of reservation will fail, said Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Wednesday.

Speaking about the women's reservation bill, CM Siddaramaiah said, We need to note that in Indian society, which includes gender inequality as well as caste inequality, women belonging to backward castes do not have the social, economic and educational capacity to compete and gain representation politically with the rest. Since there is already political reservation for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, giving reservation to women of those communities will not be a problem.

He said, If we examine in detail the women's reservation bill presented by the central government in the Lok Sabha, it is more selfish to gain political benefits than to give political justice to women. If the current bill is implemented in a similar form, women may have to wait for another two decades to get political reservation.

If Prime Minister Narendra Modi had a sincere intention to give political reservation to women, he should have presented the same bill in the Lok Sabha as was passed in the state assembly during the Congress government in 2010. Since the Rajya Sabha's approval of the bill in 2010 is still valid, the process of making the bill into law would have started as soon as it was passed in the Lok Sabha. But since the Narendra Modi government deliberately made minor changes in the bill, it has to be tabled in the Rajya Sabha again, CM said.

He said, As the bill itself says that women's reservation will come into effect only after the next census and constituency redistricting, it may take at least 20 years to complete all these processes. The next census is likely to be held in 2026 and redistricting in 2031. According to the bill to give 33 percent political reservation for women: the dream of the Congress party. We all need to remember that it was our proud leader late former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi who made a sincere effort to realize this dream.

He said, Former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi first presented a bill to give 33 percent political reservation to women in local bodies in urban and rural areas in 1989 in the Lok Sabha. But could not get approval in Rajya Sabha. The historic bill to reserve 33 per cent of the posts of presidents of local bodies for women was approved and implemented in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha in 1993 during the then Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao's tenure. It is also recorded in the pages of history that the Congress party is responsible for this revolutionary change.

In 2004, the Congress-led UPA government included women's reservation in its general minimum programmes. In 2010, the Congress government, which presented the Women's Reservation Bill in the Rajya Sabha, succeeded in getting it approved. The Congress party has been continuously trying to implement the act of reservation for women in parliament and legislative bodies. In 2018, Rahul Gandhi appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the Lok Sabha to try to get the Women's Reservation Bill passed in the Parliament beyond political differences, he said.

He added, Political reservation for women has also been included in the Congress manifesto for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and we are always committed to it. The whole country knows what was the opinion of Yogi Adityanath, the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, which is ruled by the BJP and has the largest population in the country, on the issue of the Women's Reservation Bill. Adityanath had expressed a difference of opinion on this issue when he was an MP. He said that first there should be an internal discussion in the party and consensus on this issue. "Why should we bear the sin of Congress on our heads?" he said. I would like to ask if his opinion is still the same or has it changed.