BRS leader Kavitha leads hunger strike for Women’s Reservation Bill

A day ahead of her appearance before the Enforcement Directorate in the excise scam case, BRS leader K Kavitha on Friday observed a hunger strike seeking passage of the long-pending Women's Reservation Bill in the second part of the Budget session of Parliament starting March 13.  CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury, who inaugurated the six-hour strike programme at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi, also demanded that the Modi government should bring this bill in this session of Parliament. Among leaders present at the strike were Shyam Rajak (RJD), Seema Shukla (SP), NCP spokesperson, Telangana Education Minister Sabitha Indra Reddy as well as state Women and Child Welfare Minister Satyavathi Rathod. Women leaders from Andhra Pradesh were also present. "We have come here to assure that our party will extend support to Kavitha in this protest till the bill is passed in Parliament. It is important to bring this bill to give equal opportunity to women in politics," Yechury said in his inaugural address.

When he entered Parliament for the first time in 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said his government's priority would be the Women's Reservation Bill. It has been nine years now, this bill has not been introduced again in Parliament, he said. After much efforts, the government gave reservation for women in Panchayats. "If you can give reservation for women in Panchayats, why not in Parliament," he asked and added a country will not progress unless women are given equal opportunity in social, economic and political sphere. It is important to bring this bill in the current session of Parliament and the CPI-M will stand besides the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) party in this protest, he added.