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The Centre on Tuesday urged the Congress to join hands to pass the Bill on Women Reservation, the law prohibiting triple talaq, and imposing penal consequence on those who violate the law, and another law prohibiting nikah halala.
In a letter to Congress President Rahul Gandhi, Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad wanted the coming together to be seen as as a ‘new deal’ between the two parties.
Prasad also asked Rahul whether it is only the Congress or all its allies and other Opposition partners that will be supporting the Women Reservation Bill in Parliament and State Assemblies.
The letter was in response to Rahul’s letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday, urging him to ensure the passage of the Women Reservation Bill in the Monsoon Session.
Since his Ministry deals with the subject matter of the Constitution amendment related to reservation of seats for women in Parliament and State Assemblies, Prasad said he is responding to Rahul’s letter with the PM’s consent.
“As national parties, we cannot have two sets of standards in dealing with women and their rights. We are already too late in conferring the right of adequate representation, equality in personal laws and doing away with such provisions which compromise women’s dignity,” Prasad wrote.
Want of consensus
On Rahul’s question of why the Women’s Reservation Bill hasn’t been passed yet while it was promised by the BJP in 2014, Prasad said it was originally proposed by the NDA government headed by Atal Bihari Vajpayee, but could not be passed for want of consensus in Parliament.
“It was reintroduced under UPA-II in the Rajya Sabha. Despite disturbances, the BJP and the NDA stood in firm support of the Bill and had it passed in the Rajya Sabha...the Bill lapsed with the dissolution of the Lok Sabha,” he said.
Prasad also said the National Commission on Backward Classes is another Bill with significant social importance that requires granting of constitutional status. This, again, deserves the Congress’s support for assured passage, he added in his letter.
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