Mayawati seeks immediate implementation, asks govt to drop provisions which 'delay' quota for women

BSP chief Mayawati on Wednesday urged the government to delink the women's reservation bill from the census and delimitation exercises that would "delay" its implementation for years, and accused the BJP and the Congress of using the bill for political gains.

The Bahujan Samaj Party supremo, who has already said that her party will support the bill even if its demands are not met, urged the government to drop certain clauses to ensure that the draft legislation is implemented "immediately." She said certain provisions of the bill have been framed in such a manner that the benefit of the reservation would not reach women for the next 15 or 16 years, or "several elections" later.

These clauses in the Bill prove that the government is bringing the bill not with an intention to provide reservation for women but to get their votes in the coming election, she said.

The BSP president slammed the Congress saying the party was now advocating quota within quota for the SC/ST and OBC women only for its selfish political gains, having ignored them in the Bill brought by the UPA government led by it.

The Centre on Tuesday introduced a constitutional amendment bill to reserve one-third of seats in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies for women, reviving a bill pending for nearly three decades because of lack of consensus among parties.

"The provisions which need to be mentioned here are that after the passage of the bill a census will be carried out in the country followed by the delimitation for Lok Sabha and state assembly constituencies," the Bahujan Samaj Party supremo said.

"This means it will not be implemented immediately," she told reporters.

It is an open fact that the census takes several years to complete, and the last one was carried out in 2011, Mayawati said.

"In such a situation, the new census will take several years and then delimitation will also take several years and only then the reservation will be implemented," the leader said.

"It is clear, that this bill has not been brought with the clear intention of giving reservation to women but is aimed at getting the votes of gullible women in the coming assembly and Lok Sabha elections "It is nothing more than that and the conditions kept in the bill prove this. If such is not the case, the BSP urges the government to drop these two provisions from the bill or take such steps as could help women get the benefit of reservation bill immediately," she said.

Stressing her demand for a quota within the quota, the politician said, "I again appeal for a separate quota for women from SC/ST category in the 33 per cent reservation. And similarly the quota of the OBC women should also be decided as they are still backward as compared to the general category women." She, however, repeated that her party will support the bill even if its conditions are not met, considering women of the 'sarv samaj' are still backward as compared to men.

All rights given to women have come through the Hindu Code Bill because of the efforts of BR Ambedkar and, and even at that time, the Congress government had not allowed it to be passed fully and passed it in phases, she said.

Attacking the Congress, Mayawati said the bill brought by the Congress government at the centre in the past could not be passed because it lacked the clause for a separate quota for these sections.

She alleged that the Congress is now advocating separate quotas for women of these sections for its own political benefit.

The women of the country need to remain alert from such parties as they will not get anything from them, she said.

The government on Tuesday introduced the Narishakti Vandan Adhiniyam, reserving 33 per cent seats for women in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies.

However, provisions in the bill state that the reservation will come into effect only after a delimitation exercise, or the redrawing of constituencies, and census.