Women's reservation bill the 'biggest Jumla' of NDA government: JD(U) chief Lalan Singh

PATNA: Bihar’s ruling Janata Dal United JD(U) on Wednesday supported the women’s reservation bill in the Lok Sabha but expressed serious doubt over the Centre’s intention to implement the proposals of the bill.
Speaking on behalf of his party in the Lok Sabha, JD(U) national president Rajiv Ranjan alias Lalan Singh also termed the bill as the biggest ‘Jumla’ ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Beginning his speech, the Munger MP said his party JD(U) supports the women’s reservation bill-2023 because it believes in the empowerment of women. “However, the intention of the government in bringing this bill is not to give reservation to women but is a ‘panic reaction’ to the formation of the INDIA bloc of 26 parties. It is the biggest ‘Jumla’ of the Centre ahead of the 2024 polls. This bill has been brought to deceive women just like they deceived the country’s youths in 2014 by making a false promise of providing government jobs to 2 crore youths per year,” Lalan said.
The JD(U)’s leader in the Lok Sabha also said they (BJP-led government at the centre) also cheated unemployed youths by not providing them the promised jobs. They also cheated poor people by not fulfilling their promise of depositing Rs 15 lakh in the bank account of each person after bringing back the black money from the foreign banks. “Now, they want to deceive the country’s women,” he said.
Lalan also said If the government had the intention to provide reservation to women, it would have started the caste-based census across the country in 2021. “The caste census is necessary because today it is a demand of the country. The demand for the caste census was raised from time to time in this house but you did not undertake the exercise because you did not want to conduct the caste-based census,” he said.
“You do not believe in doing justice to the poor and backward classes, that is why you didn't conduct the census. If you had conducted the census in 2021, there would have been no need for this bill right now,” Lalan said while making a frontal attack on the Modi government.
Highlighting the steps taken by the Bihar government for women empowerment, he further said that Bihar was the first state which provided 50 per cent reservation to women in the Panchayati Raj Institutions in 2006.
He also said just a year after the formation of the grand alliance government in Bihar in 2015, the state government provided 35 per cent reservation to women in state government’s jobs in 2016. “Bihar government took just a year, not four and half years like this government (BJP-led NDA government at the Centre) to bring a bill to provide reservation to women,” Lalan said.