"Reservation Bill A Jumla, Brought In With Intention To Befool Women": AAP

The BJP-led Centre has brought in the women's reservation bill with the intention to befool women and has made sure with the riders of delimitation and population census that it will not be implemented before 2039, senior AAP leader Sanjay Singh said on Wednesday.

Addressing a press conference, Mr Singh said his Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) supports the bill but wants it to be implemented in the 2024 elections as well.

"All the promises made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi have turned out to be jumla. Whether it's the promise of two crore jobs to the youth, Rs 15 lakh to every Indian, doubling farmers' income, bringing back black money, pucca house to everyone or controlling inflation, everything has been proven to be a mere jumla.

"Women's reservation bill is a jumla and has been brought in with the intention to befool women. We have been continuously saying it is 'mahila bewakoof banao bill'," he alleged.

Union Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal introduced the Constitution amendment bill which seeks to reserve 33 per cent seats in the Lok Sabha and state Assemblies for women in the Lower House of Parliament on Wednesday.

According to the bill, it will come into effect after the delimitation of Lok Sabha constituencies which will be carried out after the completion of the next population census.

Speaking on the bill, AAP MP Singh said, "There is a big question mark on when this will be implemented -- whether it will be implemented in 20 years or 25 years. In the women's reservation bill that was passed in 2010, there was no provision for census or delimitation and it simply said there will 33 per cent reservation." 

"If the intention of the BJP-led central government was right then the bill passed by the Rajya Sabha wouldn't have lapsed, and the central government could have passed the same bill in Lok Sabha in nine years. The central government has prepared a bill to garner votes of women stating many terms and conditions such as census, delimitation, and then implementation without any time limit," he said.

Mr Singh stressed that in the bill the government has said census and delimitation will happen but it did not give a time frame for the implementation.

"Delimitation will only happen after the Census. When will the Census happen? The Census will take place in 2031 and it will take two to three years, which means it will be completed by 2034. Then six to seven years will go in completing delimitation which means it won't be implemented before 2039," he claimed.

This "highly anticipated" bill has been coming for years now. For the first time it came in 1996, then in 1998, 2002, twice in 2008, 2009, and 2010. After a long period of 27 years, this bill has again been brought which has no clear vision, he noted.

Mr Singh called the Centre a "credit chor" government and said this is just an election gimmick.

"The Centre is always prompt to inaugurate the development works done by other governments, whether it's new flyovers, roads, metro. BJP has a mentality against women. They have always stood with people who have oppressed women. This is just a jumla," he said.

He was also asked about the decision of the INDIA alliance on voting for the bill.

"The members of INDIA alliance had a meeting this morning. We will decide and vote according to what is decided. We are in support of the women's reservation bill but in 2024," he said.

When asked about the fact that some INDIA alliance parties have supported the bill, he said all the partes are on the same page regarding the fact that this is an "election gimmick".

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)