'Congress, BJP playing blame game': K. Kavitha on women's quota defeat

New Delhi, April 18 (IANS) In the aftermath of the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill's defeat in the Lok Sabha, Telangana Jagruthi President K. Kavitha on Saturday blamed both the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), saying they are "playing a blame game" over the failure of the Women's Reservation Bill.

Speaking to IANS, Kavitha said, "In the history of India, yesterday will be remembered as the black day for women empowerment in this nation."

Holding both the ruling NDA alliance and the Opposition responsible, she added, "BJP is blaming the Congress, and the Congress is blaming the BJP. But the point is that the women of this nation have seriously lost out a very long fought battle."

"Women were a part of India's freedom movement but they never happened to make in the same proportion into the Parliament or assemblies of the nation," Kavitha said.

She said in 2006, it was the Congress which "cheated the women".

"Now after 20 years, in 2026, the BJP has again cheated the women of the nation," she alleged.

Terming the Bill's failure as "unfortunate", Kavitha said, "It is unfortunate that Women's Reservation Bill is time and again being linked with either census, caste census or delimitation, or something or the other. But women are being blocked."

She appealed the women that despite the blow to the reservation attempt, they should contest the elections, without thinking about whether they will "win or not".

"I appeal to the women of the nation, we need to stand on our own feet and get empowered by ourselves. We need to come out and contest," Kavitha said.

Meanwhile, Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra told reporters outside Parliament that the Women's Reservation Bill was passed in 2023 and that "all opposition parties were of the view that the Bill will be implemented during 2024 Lok Sabha polls and women would be granted one-third of the 540 seats".

"But the BJP didn't do that," she alleged.

Moreover, Moitra alleged that this was the Delimitation Bill, "dressed in" the Women's Reservation Bill.

Samajwadi Party MP Dimple Yadav added that those who came to power with guarantees of women's security, job opportunities and social justice, "are trying to spread mistruths".

"They (BJP) are attempting this again since they had lost badly in Uttar Pradesh during the (2024) Lok Sabha polls," she told reporters.

Yadav alleged, "They (BJP) didn't give reservation to OBC women. They want to create differences among the women too. If they are talking about half of the country's population, they should also include OBC, minority and Dalit women too."