Veteran Congress leader P Chidambaram took a dig at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Union government on Tuesday, September 19, asking if there can be a greater jumla (false promise) than the new Women's Reservation Bill tabled in the Lok Sabha. Taking to social media to criticise the government’s plan to implement the ‘Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam’ after the census and delimitation processes are over, Chidambaram wrote, “The date of the next Census is indeterminate. The date of the next Delimitation is indeterminate (and perhaps controversial). The Women's Reservation is dependent on two indeterminate dates.” He added that women's reservation can be implemented immediately on the basis of the updated voters’ lists.
In another post, the former Union Finance Minister also alleged that the new Women's Reservation Bill was a typical example of BJP's deceptive politics. “The Bill should be called by the name 'Nari Shakti Mockery Adhiniyam (Bill)'. The Bill mocks the women of India and asks them to wait for the next Census. It further mocks the women of India and asks them, after the Census, to wait for the Delimitation of constituencies,” he wrote. He said the government must have “reasoned” that the women of India have been waiting since March 9, 2010, so they can be asked to wait indefinitely. But this is not a Bill, this is an election jumla, he added.
Speaking to media persons later, Chidambaram also said that Sonia Gandhi will be the happiest political leader when the Bill is passed and will become law. After the Bill to reserve one-third of seats in the Parliament and state legislative Assemblies for women was tabled in the Parliament on Tuesday, Sonia Gandhi had owned the Bill, telling reporters ‘Apna hai’ (It is ours).” Congress leaders and the party’s official page soon put out the order in which bills for women’s reservation in governing bodies were first introduced in the Parliament during their reign starting September 1989.