Thiruvananthapuram: Union food and public distribution minister Pralhad Joshi on Sunday alleged that INDIA bloc “betrayed women across the country” by opposing the women’s reservation bill, and accused Congress of having a long history of denying justice to women and backward communities.Addressing a news conference here, Joshi said Congress had a “tradition of deceiving women”. Citing the Shah Bano case, he alleged that the party brought in a constitutional amendment to overturn the Supreme Court verdict in the case, thereby denying justice to Muslim women.He accused Congress of spreading “false propaganda” that delimitation would reduce the number of seats in southern states. “The intention is to increase the total number of seats by 50%. If the bill is implemented, representation of southern states in Lok Sabha will rise from 23.76% to around 24%,” he said. Congress leader K C Venugopal had demanded inclusion of such a provision and it was accepted, he added.Tracing the bill’s legislative history, Joshi said when then Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda introduced the proposal in 1996 with Congress support, the party didn’t back it. He said BJP-led govts under Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 1998 and 1999 also didn’t receive Congress’s cooperation on the bill.Referring to United Progressive Alliance govt, Joshi said although the women’s reservation bill was passed in Rajya Sabha in 2008 with BJP‘s support, Congress didn’t take steps to pass it in Lok Sabha. “Even till 2014, despite BJP offering support, Congress didn’t bring the bill forward, showing it doesn’t stand with women or OBC communities,” he said.He accused Congress of failing to implement key recommendations for backward classes, including those of Kaka Kalelkar commission and Mandal commission. He said former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s opposition to Mandal commission was part of parliamentary records. Since the time of Jawaharlal Nehru, Congress had opposed reservations for SCs and STs, he alleged.Joshi said implementation of women’s reservation requires delimitation, and the decision on which constituencies would be reserved rests with the delimitation commission. BJP consistently supported greater representation for women and BJP-ruled states have already backed the bill, he said. Alleging political double standards, he said Congress and CPM “fight in Kerala but act as allies in Delhi”, and accused them of jointly opposing the bill.
