Bharat Rashtra Samithi MLC and Telangana CM K Chandrashekar Rao's daughter K Kavitha broke her one-day hunger strike in an effort to seek the introduction of the Women's Reservation Bill in the current Budget session of the Parliament. The sit-in dharna at Jantar Mantar was attended by opposition parties and women organisations who have supported the Women's Reservation Bill from across India.
"Women's Reservation bill is important and we need to bring it soon. I promise all women this protest will not stop until the bill is introduced. This Bill will help in the development of the nation. I request the BJP-led central government to introduce this Bill in parliament," she said.
CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury, who inaugurated the strike programme at Jantar Mantar here, also demanded that the Modi government should bring this bill in this session of Parliament. "We have come here to assure that our party will extend support to Kavitha in this protest till the bill is passed in Parliament. It is important to bring this bill to give equal opportunity to women in politics," Yechury said in his inaugural address.
When he entered Parliament for the first time in 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said his government's priority would be the Women's Reservation Bill. It has been nine years now, this bill has not been introduced again in Parliament, he said.
After much efforts, the government gave reservation for women in Panchayats. "If you can give reservation for women in Panchayats, why not in Parliament," he asked and added a country will not progress unless women are given equal opportunity in social, economic and political sphere.
Kavitha arrived in Delhi on Thursday and said that she will be appearing before the Enforcement Directorate on March 11. On March 8, the BRS came down heavily on the Centre after the ED summoned Kavitha in connection with its ongoing probe of the Delhi excise policy case, saying that the central probe agencies have become an extended arm of the BJP.
Referring to the summons as "politically motivated", BRS leader Ravula Sridhar Reddy had said that except ED and BJP, nobody really understands the case registered in connection with the new-withdrawn new Delhi excise policy.
(With inputs from agencies)
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