Farooq flays BJP for delay in Parliament quota for women

Jammu, March 8

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National Conference (NC) president Farooq Abdullah slammed the BJP on Monday over the delay in passage of the women’s reservation Bill in Parliament despite enjoying a majority. Abdullah said the passage of the women reservation’s Bill would be the “biggest service” to the women in the country.

Addressing an event to mark the International Women’s Day at party headquarters in Jammu, Abdullah said men could talk about empowering women, but they do not want it to happen. “The BJP is enjoying majority in the Parliament, and had passed farm bills and that of revocation of Article 370 even as the people were not in their favour. Why are they not passing this Bill when the entire country wants it?” Abdullah asked.

Brushes aside BJP’s resolve to form govt

• A day after the BJP’s J&K unit adopted a resolution to form the next government in the UT, Farooq Abdullah pooh-poohed the resolve and said “I will see how it is going to happen”
• He also criticised the BJP for allegedly dubbing him and other leaders as “Pakistani” during election time and urged the people to stay away from the politics of religion and hatred

The bill was first introduced by the the United Front government in 1996 and then the Vajpayee government tabled it a few times. However, it could never be passed in any of the two Houses on all these occasions. The prospects of its passage brightened when the UPA government tabled it in the Rajya Sabha in 2010 and managed to get it passed in the Upper House.

However, reluctance from some of its allies and backward caste MPs from many parties meant that it lapsed with the dissolution of the 15th Lok Sabha in 2014. — PTI