Congress gives BJP a history lesson on women’s reservation bill, calls PM Modi a “certified liar”

A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi called the Congress "ghamandia" (arrogant) and accused the grand old party of “reluctantly” supporting the women’s reservation bill, the Congress gave a history lesson to PM, saying it was BJP leaders who had opposed the Women’s Reservation Bill in 1989.

"The ghamandia alliance reluctantly supported the women's reservation bill," said PM Modi in Bhopal, referring to the new legislation reserving 33% seats for women in central and state legislatures.

Hitting back at the prime minister for touting the Congress of being anti-women, chairman of the Media and Publicity Department of Congress, Pawan Khera said: “He [PM Modi] accuses Congress of being anti women. Women's Reservation Bill was first brought by Rajiv Gandhi in 1989. That time in Rajya Sabha due to seven votes the Bill could not be passed and the BJP veteran leaders like Atal Bihari Vajpayee, LK Advani, Ram Jethmalani and Jashwant Singh were the people who opposed the Bill.”

Slamming the BJP government at the Centre, Khera asked, “Since 2014 the BJP has been in power in full majority. Why did it waste over nine years and did not bring the Bill? And today when you brought then many are saying that it will take 10 years for its implementation.”

Khera called Modi a “certified liar”.

Saying that the BJP has already conceded defeat in poll-bound Madhya Pradesh, Khera added, “Yesterday (Monday) the prime minister was on a political election campaign tour of Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. And in his 51 minutes speech in Madhya Pradesh he mentioned the Congress for 44 times.”

Khera said that it speaks the reality that the prime minister has nothing to say or tell about the achievements of his party government.

“He is a certified liar. The prime minister is a certified liar. Never such was the status of any prime minister and we will never expect this for any other prime minister of the country,” added Khera.

When asked why MP chief minister Chouhan’s name has not been announced by the BJP for assembly polls, he said: “If you are not taking the name of the sitting chief minister in your public meetings and not naming him in the list, it shows that they have already conceded defeat before the announcement of election results. But if you have decided that your chief minister is useless, then we cannot do anything.”