Owaisi’s AIMIM opposes Women’s Reservation Bill, says it lacks ‘quota’ for Muslim women

AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi has said that his party would oppose the Women’s Reservation Bill introduced by the Modi government in the Lok Sabha due to its lack of provisions for a sub-quota for Other Backward Classes (OBC) and Muslim women. Speaking to the media after the Lok Sabha adjourned, Owaisi expressed, “You are making this law for representation of people who do not have representation. All 17 Lok Sabha elections in India, have elected 8992 MPs, out of which muslims are only 520. Within that 520, there are barely a handful of muslim women.” Questioning the government’s decision, the All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief asked, “Who are you giving representation to?” He highlighted the “major flaw” in the bill is the absence of a quota for Muslim and OBC women, and stated, “That’s why we are against it.” On Tuesday, following the relocation of the parliament to a new building, Law Minister Arjun Meghwal introduced the Women’s Reservation Bill, known as ‘Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam,’ in the Lok Sabha. The bill aims to allocate one-third of the seats in Lok Sabha and state assemblies for women. Additionally, it proposes reserving one-third of the total seats designated for SCs and STs for women belonging to these communities.

Speaking about the bill, in his first speech at the parliament, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he had been chosen by God to accord “women their rights and to harness their true power”.“We approved this Bill in the Cabinet yesterday. The day 19 September will be remembered in history because of this Bill,” Modi added. The bill, which proposes a 33 per cent quota for women in Lok Sabha and state legislative assemblies, was approved by the Union Cabinet on Monday to provide reservation for women in the national and state legislatures, paving the way for the introduction of the legislation in the ongoing special session of Parliament. Owaisi also attacked PM Modi for coming from a backward class and yet not helping other OBCs. He said, “The Prime Minister is OBC, you only have 120 OBC MPs in the house, there are 232 Upper Caste MPs. The Prime Minister says ‘I am an OBC’ but you are not looking after your own OBCs.”