Rahul Gandhi seeks PM Modi’s support to ensure safe passage of Women’s Reservation Bill

The bill has been stalled in the Lok Sabha for over eight years on one pretext or the other, Gandhi wrote. He added that the BJP appeared to have second thoughts about the bill, though it was one of its key promises in its 2014 election manifesto.

“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 way to demonstrate your commitment to the cayse of women, than by offering your unconditional support to the passage of the Women’s Reservation Bill? And what better time, than the upcoming session of Parliment? Any further delay will make it impossible to implement before the next general elections,” Gandhi wrote.

The Monsoon Session of Parliament will be held from July 18 until August 10.

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, 2018

In 2017, then Congress president Sonia Gandhi urged PM Modi to take advantage of the majority enjoyed by the BJP in Lok Sabha and pass the long-pending bill.

The Bill was passed in the Rajya Sabha in 2010, when the Congress was in power.