Lucknow: Digging out old videos of top BJP leaders not approving of the women reservation bill when it was originally introduced in 2010, Samajwadi Party’s top brass on Saturday questioned the ‘motive’ and ‘intentions’ of the BJP bringing in an amendment that couldn’t pass the floor test in Parliament.SP leadership on Saturday questioned the delay in notifying the 2023 Bill, which they claim was notified as an Act the night before it was tabled in Parliament earlier this week to seek an amendment.SP MP from Mainpuri Dimple Yadav questioned the intention of the BJP behind seeking an amendment to the Bill on Women Reservation that was passed way back in 2023. “When the Bill was tabled in 2023, all political parties supported it and it was passed, which explains that the opposition was in no way against the Bill. If the BJP’s sole intention was reservation to women, they would have implemented the Bill passed in 2023. They have other motives behind moving the amendment Bill,” Dimple said in a statement on Saturday.She said what was the harm in waiting for the census and caste enumeration before going ahead with the Women Reservation Bill. “Once the two exercises are through, a clearer picture of the demography will emerge, which will help to draft better provisions,” Dimple said. “This will ensure that the women standing at the end of the queue in the present social set-up get the opportunity equal to those standing in front,” she said.SP national president Akhilesh Yadav posted a 2010 video of chief minister Yogi Adityanath, who could be heard responding to a media query on women reservation when the Bill was originally tabled in 2010 by the then Congress-led UPA govt. “Those who now want to brand themselves as champions of women empowerment did not back the Bill, saying that most of the members in the Lok Sabha were opposed to the idea,” Akhilesh said.He said the Bill was an attempt to change the public discourse, which was presently about the failures of the BJP. “It is not the Bill but BJP’s bad intentions that have been defeated in Parliament,” he said.In the video, Yogi can be heard saying that if there is democracy within the party, the (then) proposed Bill should be discussed within the party first. “I can say it with certainty that the form in which this Bill has come, 90% of the members of the Lok Sabha are opposed to it,” Yogi Adityanath could be heard saying. He went on to say that only one or two members on either side were in favour of the Bill and the result of forcing the Bill on every member will not be good for democracy or anyone else.For a quick recap, the Women’s Reservation Bill (108th Amendment), tabled by the BJP in the recently concluded special session of Parliament, was originally introduced in 2010 under the Congress-led UPA govt. The original Bill also proposed 33% reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies. Tabled on March 9, 2010, in the Rajya Sabha, the landmark Bill passed in the upper house but ultimately stalled in the Lok Sabha. It was again tabled by the BJP in 2023 when it was passed unanimously.
