NewzVille Desk
Congress general secretary and MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra today described the defeat of the Women Reservation Amendment Bill in the Lok Sabha on Friday as “Victory of Democracy”, saying, the united Opposition “defeated the government conspiracy to alter the federal structure and the Constitution”.
“It is victory of the Constitution, victory of the country and the victory of the unity of the Opposition”, she remarked, while noting, “defeat was visible on the faces of the ruling party leaders yesterday”.
Addressing a press conference at the AICC office along with party general secretary in charge of communications Jairam Ramesh, she referred to the speeches of the Prime Minister and the Union Home Minister wherein they stated that if the Opposition did not agree with the bill, they (the opposition) can never come to power and never win.
“This makes their intentions obvious”, she said, while adding, “the entire conspiracy was for sticking to power somehow, one way or the other”.
Spelling out the design of the government in bringing these bills, the Congress general secretary said that their plan was to permanently stick to power and bring in the delimitation on the basis of the 2011 census, in the name of women reservation.
She said they thought if the bill is passed, they would manage delimitation in an arbitrary manner and since it would be based on 2011 census, they would not have to take caste data into consideration for women reservation. They believed, she said about the government, “if it does not get passed, we will malign the Opposition and project them as being against the women”.
“You can’t claim to be the messiah of the women for nothing, just because you stand in the Parliament and speak for women reservation”, she told the powers that be, while saying, “The BJP has a history regarding women – their attitude in Unnao and Hathras incidents, the treatment meted out to women Olympians and the women in Manipur”.
Asserting that it was quite clear that the bill brought by the govt was not about women reservation but about delimitation and the government wanted to do away with the caste factor, she said, it was not possible for the opposition to support it, therefore it stood together and defeated the government.
Vadra reiterated that the Opposition is ready to support the government if it brings back the 2023 Women Reservation Bill and implements it right away within the existing strength of the Parliament.
She said the government needed this shock defeat to make it realise that excessive PR and media management does not work anymore. “People of the country are wise and understand who is up to what”, she said, adding, “it is not what it was 12 years ago and during the last three days, they are not able to comprehend that people of India have become aware”.
“They can make as much ‘tamasha’ as they want, the people across the country have realised that they cannot be trusted anymore”, she asserted.
The senior Congress leader observed that there was a reason behind this sudden move by the government as there is international pressure as also the pressure from the people over rising prices and other issues.
Replying to a question about the government accusing the Opposition of being against the women’s reservation, she said, they have just been defeated in the Parliament for the first time in 12 years.
She pointed out, the Opposition has made it repeatedly clear that it supports the women’s reservation and would like it to be implemented from now itself with the existing Lok Sabha strength.
On Opposition unity, the Congress general secretary said, the parties may be fighting each other in certain states, but when it comes to protecting the national interest, they are always together as was proved yesterday in the Parliament.
Vadra said the govt’s intention was the “complete overhaul of the Parliament” adding that those who have complete disregard for the Constitution cannot be trusted. Citing the example of Jammu and Kashmir and Assam, where the BJP manipulated delimitation, she asked, “when people do not trust them, how can you expect us to trust them?”
