Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Monday announced a drive to collect over 10 million signatures from women in support of 33% reservation for women in legislatures, terming April 17 as a “black day for democracy”. He said the opposition parties betrayed women on April 17 by defeating the Constitution Amendment Bill to expand the size of the Lok Sabha and speed up reservation.
Fadnavis vowed to exert such pressure from women in the opposition to force them to support the bill. He added that the ruling alliance in Maharashtra will not rest until the bill is passed to ensure reservation for women by 2029.
Fadnavis said that the Congress, Trinamool Congress, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, Nationalist Congress Party-Sharadchandra Pawar or NCP-SP and Shiv Sena (UBT) opposition to amendment to the Constitution is an anti-women mentality. He described this as an insult to nearly 700 million women in India.
Fadnavis said the opposition was against the ideals of social reformers like Mahatma Jyotrao Phule and Bhimrao Ambedkar. He added that any opposition leader of his stature is free to discuss the alleged flaws and provisions in the draft law in any public forum.
Maharashtra’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, Shiv Sena and Nationalist Congress Party have announced a special awareness campaign across the state from Tuesday. The women’s march will culminate in a massive march in Mumbai on Tuesday. The three ruling parties will campaign individually and collectively across Maharashtra.
NCP – SP legislator Supriya Sule accepted Fadnavis’ challenge and said she was ready for a public discussion. She asked Fadnavis to specify the time and place. Sule said that she would present her party’s position and respond to the accusations against the opposition.
Fadnavis, who announced the course of action at a press conference in Mumbai on Monday, rejected criticism over the attempt to link demarcation with the Women’s Reservation Bill. “The Modi government was flexible enough to avoid a North-South divide and decided on a 50% increase in the existing seats in the states. This would have led to an increase in seats in the South, as their percentage of seats in the Lok Sabha would have gone up to 23.87% from the current 23.78%,” he said.
Fadnavis claimed that the Opposition defeated the bills in Lok Sabha last week because it saw an opportunity to push its anti-women agenda. “The 2023 bill was passed unanimously because of the NDA [National Democratic Alliance] It had a two-thirds majority in the Lok Sabha at the time… and the bill had to be passed anyway. “With the strength of the ruling alliance in Lok Sabha now changing, the opposition has revealed its true colors on women’s reservation,” he said.
