New Delhi: Seeking a 33 per cent quota for women in Parliament, activists of a leading women's group on Friday accused the UPA government at the Centre of showing a total lack of political will in implementing this progressive step.
"Even though the UPA government is committed to the Women's Reservation Bill, it has shown a total lack of political will in this regard," National Federation of Indian Women General Secretary Annie Raja said.
She accused the Government of not giving supporters of the Bill enough chance to speak in Parliament. "To voice our concerns, we met Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Parliamentary Affiars Minister Priyaranjan Dasmunshi two weeks ago.
"At that time, Dasmunshi assured us the Bill will be taken up in the winter session. But, later Gandhi said some allies as well as men from her own party are not supporting the idea," Raja said.
"Let the Bill be presented in its original form in Parliament and there be a debate. At least, we will know who opposes it on the floor of the House," she said.
On concerns raised by some political parties on the issue, Raja slammed them saying they were "consciously" skirting the issue.
"Whenever we raise the issue of reservation for women, the RJD and the SP want reservations within reservations for OBCs," Raja said.
She asked why India, despite being the largest democracy, did not have a fixed percentage of seats reserved for women when its neighbours like Pakistan and Nepal had seats for women in legislatures.
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