Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh on Sunday slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for not moving the stalled Women’s Reservation Bill, accusing him of betraying the “nation builders”.
In a series of tweets, the Chief Minister while attacking the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led Central Government said, “Once hailed as ‘nation builders’ by PM Modi, the already marginalised Indian women have been most brutally betrayed by the BJP Government.”
He said, “Deference of the Women’s Reservation Bill is BJP has gone back on its primary manifesto promise for women. And it was only the beginning.”
Notably, Congress President Sonia Gandhi had on September 21 urged the Prime Minister to urgently pass the Women’s Reservation Bill in the lok Sabha where the BJP has a majority.
In a letter to Modi, Sonia Gandhi had said: “You may recall that the Rajya Sabha had passed the Women’s Reservation Bill on March 9, 2010. Since then, however, it has languished in the lok Sabha for one reason or another.”
Himachal Chief Minister also referred to the Panchayati Raj Bills passed in Haryana and Rajasthan in 2015, fixing educational and other qualifications for the candidates contesting Panchayati elections.
“Then came along arbitrary conditions on educational qualifications for contesting panchayat elections in Rajasthan and Haryana. Anti-constitutional!,” he said in a tweet.
According to the Rajasthan Panchayati Raj (amendment) Bill, 2015, a candidate should be Class 8 pass for the post of Sarpanch — except in tribal reserved areas, where the minimum qualification is Class 5 — and Class 10 for Zila Parishad or Panchayat Samiti elections.
While in Haryana, matriculation is essential qualification for general candidates contesting the Panchayat elections while the qualification for the women (general) and Scheduled Caste candidate will be middle standard (Class 8).
In another tweet, Virbhadran Singh flaunted Himachal’s women literacy rate, claiming it was higher than the national average. He posted on Twitter, “Meanwhile in Himachal Pradesh, female literacy of 75.9 per cent exceeded national average. Sixty-four per cent women constituted workforce, highest in India. True empowerment!”
Meanwhile, Congress spokesman Randeep Singh Surjewala also launched a scathing attack on Narendra Modi terming him as “sapnon ka saudagar” (merchant of dreams).
In 2014, Narendra Modi came as merchant of dreams and made several attractive promises. But, Modi has not fulfilled any promises he made to the people of Himachal Pradesh during his 2014 lok Sabha campaign, alleged Surjewala while speaking at Dharamshala.
Today, the people of ‘Dev Bhoomi’ Himachal want to know what happened to those promises,” said the Congress spokesman.
Surjewala said, “On April 29, 2014, at a rally in Solan, the Prime Minister had promised to steeply hike import duty on apples to protect the local apple orchards. But now more than three lakh tonnes of apples are being imported from US, China and New Zealand. Can he explain itIJ”
In another rally on the same day at Palampur, Modi had promised to make the hill state a “paradise of tourism” but the Centre has not given any funds nor any new project to develop tourism in Himachal, he alleged.
“Modi had said that now even persons who wear ‘hawai chappals’ (those not quite well-off) can now fly in ‘hawai jahaaz’ (aeroplane). But after six months of this announcement, the reality is that mostly there is no flight between Delhi and Shimla or if there is one, the fare is over Rs 15,000,” he said.
The Congress leader also claimed that the NDA was the first Central Government to levy a tax on farmers in the form of the GST. “Eighteen per cent tax is levied on agriculture and 12 per cent on agriculture equipment, the first time in India. Farmers are working hard to fill our stomachs, and they must be exempt from tax. That is why Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi has termed GST — Gabbar Singh Tax,” he said.
The BJP’s anti-people face has been exposed and the public of Himachal Pradesh would give it a befitting reply for its lies, deception and drama, he added.
Surjewala also rejected Modi’s charge that the Congress had conceded defeat and its senior leaders had fled the field, leaving CM Virbhadra Singh to campaign alone.
“Our CM is so strong that he has scared the daylights out of them. The BJP has failed to counter the Congress on the developmental works it has undertaken in HP,” he said.
The votes for 68-seat assembly in Himachal Pradesh will be cast on November 9 and the counting will take place on December 18.