<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-IN" style="font-family:"Bookman Old Style","serif""><b>GANGTOK, :</b> The Sikkim Pradesh Congress Committee (SPCC) on Wednesday accused the Sikkim KrantikariMorcha (SKM) government of insulting women by allegedly mobilising them for a large rally in support of the 131st Constitutional Amendment Bill, linked to the Women’s Reservation Act, even before it was taken up in the LokSabha.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-IN" style="font-family:"Bookman Old Style","serif"">The SPCC maintained that similar rallies were not held in other BJP-ruled States and claimed that the SKM government had misled women to appease the Centre.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-IN" style="font-family:"Bookman Old Style","serif"">Addressing a press conference, SPCC president GopalChhetri said, “The misuse of women in political campaigns should be stopped. The SKM government, which is mired in debt and corruption, used women to save its chair. Previous governments did not bow down to the Centre to this extent, but the present government has done so for personal gain, losing regional sentiments in the process.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-IN" style="font-family:"Bookman Old Style","serif"">He further alleged that both the SKM and the BJP were not pro-women, claiming that pressure had been exerted on an independent woman candidate ahead of the municipal elections scheduled for April 24.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-IN" style="font-family:"Bookman Old Style","serif"">Chhetri also criticised the BJP-led NDA government, alleging that it was attempting to implement delimitation in the name of women’s reservation. “The Central government is using women for political gain. It deliberately linked women’s reservation to the controversial delimitation process based on the 2011 Census, leading to delays in its implementation,” he said. He added that the Congress has always supported women’s reservation and that it should be implemented without preconditions.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-IN" style="font-family:"Bookman Old Style","serif"">Commenting on the 131st Constitutional Amendment Bill, the SPCC president claimed that the Centre was aware that the legislation would not be passed. “The BJP did not intend to empower women. With 240 seats in the LokSabha and 293 along with its allies, it still would not secure the required two-third <a name="_GoBack"></a>majority. The opposition did not support the bill, and a false narrative is being created to portray them as anti-women,” he said.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-IN" style="font-family:"Bookman Old Style","serif"">He also referred to the history of the legislation, stating that the bill was first introduced in 1996 and faced opposition at the time. Though it was passed in the RajyaSabha in 2010, it was not cleared in the LokSabha, he added.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-IN" style="font-family:"Bookman Old Style","serif"">Chhetri maintained that the opposition, including the Congress, supports women’s reservation but opposes its linkage with delimitation. He further cited incidents in BJP-ruled States such as Hathras, Manipur, Uttarakhand and Madhya Pradesh to question claims of women’s empowerment.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-IN" style="font-family:"Bookman Old Style","serif"">Highlighting the Congress’s track record, he pointed to leaders such as PratibhaPatil, Indira Gandhi and Meira Kumar as examples of women holding top constitutional positions.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p> </p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-IN"> </span></p>
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