New Delhi: The Women’s Reservation Bill, which has gained notoriety for being one of the longest pending legislations in the Indian parliament, got vocal support from Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Monday.In a letter addressed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Gandhi wrote, “I write to you to request your support to ensure the passage of the Women’s Reservation Bill in the upcoming monsoon session of parliament.”Gandhi’s challenge to the BJP comes less than a week before the monsoon session is scheduled to begin. The Bill was first passed in 2010 under the then UPA government in the Rajya Sabha, but has yet to get a clearance in the Lok Sabha. According to Gandhi, the Bill “has been stalled in the Lok Sabha for over eight years on one pretext or the other”.Reminding Modi that one of the BJP’s key promises in its 2014 election manifesto was to get the Bill passed and implemented, Gandhi stressed on how there is no “better way to demonstrate commitment other than offering unconditional support to the passage of the Women’s Reservation Bill”.“Mr. Prime Minister, in many of your public rallies you have spoken about your passion for empowering women and involving them more meaningfully in public life… What better time, than the upcoming session of parliament? Any further delay will make it impossible to implement before the next general elections,” Gandhi wrote.Our PM says he’s a crusader for women’s empowerment? Time for him to rise above party politics, walk-his-talk & have the Women’s Reservation Bill passed by Parliament. The Congress offers him its unconditional support.Attached is my letter to the PM. #MahilaAakrosh pic.twitter.com/IretXFFvvK— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) July 16, 2018This request comes on the back of Modi’s comments at rally in Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh, where the prime minister was laying the foundation stone for the 340-km Purvanchal Expressway. He criticised the Congress over its stand on triple talaq and asked if the party only stood for Muslim men and not Muslim women.Modi said, “I have read in newspaper the Congress president has said that Congress is a party of Muslims, I am not surprised by this. All I want to ask is, is their party only for Muslim men or for women too?”His speech earned him a lot of pain on social media as he had based it on a statement incorrectly attributed to Congress president Rahul Gandhi that had been printed by an Urdu daily reportedly owned by the Dainik Jagran group. The report had alleged that Gandhi scion had said that the Congress was a ‘Muslim party’.“Is there any place for the dignity and the rights of Muslim women? They have stalled legislation in the parliament and they do not allow parliament to run,” Modi said in his speech. “I am not surprised because during the previous government, the then PM Manmohan Singhji had himself said that Muslims had the first claim on the natural resources of the country,” he said.In response, the Congress issued a tweet which broke down the party’s stand on the Bill.Dear PM Modi, since you missed our objections to the Triple Talaq bill the first time, here’s a quick recap. https://t.co/hDouk3FXmO— Congress (@INCIndia) July 14, 2018To attack this particular meeting to say the Congress is a party for just a section of people, shows the BJP’s divisive & communal agenda.Grow up BJP, show some maturity.— Congress (@INCIndia) July 15, 2018The party also accused him of lying to the nation.Prime Minister continues to lie to the people of India. His insecurities are getting the better of him. What are you scared of Modi ji? #TotoVikas https://t.co/yzCvX9HarJ— Congress (@INCIndia) July 14, 2018He wasn’t the only BJP minister to fall for the fake news. Defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman had said last week that the “Congress party is playing a dangerous game, playing communal division, playing up the card of religion. It is frightening that it may lead to the kind of division and kind of communal disharmony that prevailed during the 1947 partition. Congress party shall be solely responsible if any disharmony plays out between now and the 2019 elections”.“You can’t be janeu-dhari (a Hindu who wears the sacred thread) at one point… Muslim-dhari at another… This is playing with the people’s trust,” Sitharaman said at a media briefing in reference to the Congress describing Gandhi as a janeu-dhari Hindu after there was some political squabbling over his religion during a visit to Somnath temple In Gujarat.Sitharaman had taken umbrage to a report that Gandhi had met with several Muslim intellectuals. Farah Navi wrote for The Wire: “The tone and tenor in which the defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the words – ‘Mussslim intellectuals’ – with venomous, contemptuous emphasis, left no one in any doubt about her feelings for this group of Indian citizens”.Make no mistake. Sitharaman’s statement inadvertently gives away BJP’S campaign strategy for 2019. There will be no talk of development, Acche Din, jobs, farmers, black money or corruption. It will be an out & out communal campaign, with every effort to stoke communal violence— Prashant Bhushan (@pbhushan1) July 14, 2018A couple of months, Modi had made similar jibes at a rally in Karnataka, where he described Congress’ move to oppose the ‘triple talaq’ bill in Rajya Sabha as a “marker of its anti-women mindset”.
