Nitish Kumar’s JD-U to support women’s quota bill, ally RJD says it will oppose
The JD-U and RJD questioned the delay in conducting the decadal headcount, saying the 33% quota will kick in only after the census and delimitation is done
PATNA: Two key constituents of Bihar’s ruling coalition, the Janata Dal-United (JD-U) and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) on Tuesday adopted a different approach to the women’s reservation bill introduced by the central government in Parliament.
The RJD, which has pushed for quotas for women from deprived sections, said it opposes the bill in its current form. But the JD-U promptly welcomed the introduction of the bill, pledged its support and even sought to take credit for the party’s role in the empowerment of women over the years.
JD-U chief spokesperson KC Tyagi said the party will support the women’s reservation bill. “Nitish Kumar has demanded this on many occasions. However, Kumar has been demanding that women from deprived groups should also get proper reservation,” he said.
In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar said: “The women’s reservation bill that has been brought in Parliament is a welcome step. We have been advocates of women’s empowerment since the beginning and have taken many historic steps in Bihar. From the year 2006, we gave 50% reservation to women in panchayati raj institutions and from the year 2007, to municipal bodies”.
Kumar also asked the Centre to quickly conduct the decadal headcount that had been put off by the government. He said the bill circulated by the government, says that the 33% reservation will be implemented after a census is conducted and the delimitation of constituencies is done.
“For this, the census work should be completed soon. The Census should have been done in the year 2021 but it has not been done yet. Along with the Census, a Caste Census should also be conducted, only then women will get its true benefits. If caste census had been conducted, the system of reservation for women belonging to backward and extremely backward classes could have been implemented immediately,” said Kumar.
Kumar added his party and government’s view that there should be a provision for reservation for women from the backward and extremely backward classes such as Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
Other JD-U leaders claimed the quota bill for women was inspired by Bihar’s move to extend reservation in 2006. “It has been inspired by the reservation given to women in Bihar. By bringing the Women’s Reservation Bill, the central government has once again proven that whatever Bihar does, the country follows it,” said JD-U’s national general secretary Rajeev Ranjan.
To be sure, the JD-U came around to supporting the women’s reservation bill in 2010 when the bill was voted in the Rajya Sabha, threatening a split in the party in view of differences between Nitish Kumar and the then party president Sharad Yadav. The JD(U) was among the many political parties that recently demanded that the prime minister introduce it in the ongoing special session.
The RJD, founded by Lalu Prasad Yadav, however, hasn’t toned down its stand.
“The bill is not going to bring social justice in its present form. This will bring privileged women, those from the world of cinema and serials (into legislature). It will hardly reflect the rural scenario in the Parliament,” RJD spokesperson Shakti Yadav said, underlining that his party does not support the bill in its present form and demands a ‘quota within quota.’
Former Bihar chief minister Rabri Devi stressed her party’s demand for quota within quotas.
“In the 33% reservation given in the Women’s Reservation Bill, seats have not been reserved for SC, ST, OBC women. The provision made for SC/ST categories will give SC/ST women 33% of the seats already reserved for those categories. That means SC/ST is cheated here also,” she said in a post in Hindi on X.
In a second post, she also underscored that the bill was a gimmick aimed at making some noise since it will only be implemented after a fresh round of delimitation. “And for delimitation, there needs to be a census on which the government is dragging its feet since it wants to put the demand for caste census in cold storage,” she alleged.
The Bharatiya Janata Party, however, celebrated the bill. Union minister of state for home affairs Nityanand Rai said it was a historic move and accused the Congress and other constituents of the opposition bloc INDIA of opposing it.
“All the parties including Congress, which have been opposing the women’s reservation bill for decades, are now busy spreading the lie that “this bill is ours,” he said, a reference to Congress leader Sonia Gandhi’s comment on the reservation bill.