Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin on Wednesday called the Women's Reservation Bill in its current form a "poll gimmick" as it would be implemented only after a delimitation exercise on the basis of a yet-to-be-held census.
Dubbing the Women's Bill a poll gimmick triggered by the prospect of electoral defeat, the CM said it is a "strange trick" to adopt a bill now for something that is said to come into force in 2029 following a delimitation exercise on the basis of a yet-to-be-held census, for which there is also no guarantee on when it would be held.
"Delimitation is like a Sword of Damocles hanging over the head of Tamil Nadu and south India. The political conspiracy to lower the political representation of south India must be outmanoeuvred," he said.
However, the main opposition AIADMK in Tamil Nadu welcomed the bill saying it had pioneered initiatives aimed at women empowerment in the state. The CM stressed on the importance of having a quota for women of the Backward Classes.
He demanded that the Centre assure the people of Tamil Nadu and the whole of south India that the delimitation exercise would do no harm to the states that have managed to control their population.
In a statement here, Stalin referred to delimitation and said that the effort to betray a "politically vigilant Tamil Nadu" should be nipped in the bud.
AIADMK General Secretary and former Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami said his party has been the pioneer for the whole of India in providing reservation to women.
In local bodies, his party-led regime provided 33 per cent reservation for women and enhanced it to 50 per cent in 2016. Palaniswami welcomed the bill, expressing pride that his party government's past initiative had become a model for the current bill.
When late party supremo J Jayalalithaa formed the government for the first time in 1991, as many as 31 women MLAs were elected, Palaniswami said on social media platform X.
Both the AIADMK and DMK claimed credit for the 33 per cent reservation for women in local bodies. The present ruling party listed other initiatives for women empowerment taken by their past regimes. The DMK said it implemented the 33 per cent quota in 1996.
DMK president Stalin demanded to know why the Centre has not shown the same interest in passing the Women's Bill, the way it passed the bills to abrogate Article 370 and to bring in 10 per cent Economically Weaker Sections quota.
People would be able to tell that the BJP regime, which is trying to hoodwink them by bringing the bill now, is indulging in a "political stunt," after being indifferent on the matter for the past nine years.
Although Stalin dubbed the tabling of the bill "belated and an eyewash" in addition to calling it a diversion from all current issues, he said his party supports the principle of the Women's Reservation Bill and urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to allay the apprehensions of south Indians that nothing would go against their interests in the name of delimitation.
(With PTI inputs)
