Cong ‘reluctantly’ backed women’s reservation bill: Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday targeted the Congress over the women’s reservation bill, saying the opposition party and its partners in the new “ghamandia” alliance “reluctantly” supported the historic step.

The prime minister’s attack on the Congress during his massive rallies in Bhopal and Jaipur came on a day when 21 women leaders of the rival party held news conferences in 21 cities as part of what the party said its strategy to “expose the Modi government” on the women’s reservation bill which secured Parliamentary approval last Thursday.

The Congress hit back asking why has Modi played a “cruel joke” on the women of the country.

MP and Rajasthan are among the five states where Assembly elections are due later this year.

Addressing a gathering of BJP workers, ‘Karyakarta Mahakumb’, in Bhopal, Modi also likened the Congress to “rusted iron” and alleged its functioning has been outsourced to “urban Naxals” and that the party is not run by leaders. According to a top BJP leader, the event was attended by more than five lakh workers.

Modi also spoke about the passage of the women’s reservation bill while addressing a BJP event in Delhi after unveiling a statue of the party’s ideologue Deendayal Upadhyaya on his birth anniversary, saying it is not only a win for democracy but also of the party’s ideology. Without appropriate participation of women in politics, one cannot talk about inclusive society and democratic integration, he added.