Daijiworld Media Network - New Delhi
New Delhi, Apr 28: Union Minister Kiren Rijiju has claimed that Congress MP Shashi Tharoor indicated his party is “anti-women” during an informal exchange after a Parliament session, triggering a fresh political debate.
Speaking to a news agency, Rijiju said Tharoor remarked that while the Indian National Congress may be perceived as anti-women, no one would consider him personally to be so. “In a way, he accepted that Congress is anti-women, and I also agreed that he himself is not anti-women, but his party is,” Rijiju said.
The comments come in the backdrop of a social media post shared by Tharoor on April 18, featuring a photograph with Rijiju after a parliamentary interaction. In a lighter tone, Tharoor had described Rijiju as a “charming” Parliamentary Affairs Minister and noted that he had pointed out that no one could call him “mahila virodhi” (anti-women), a point Rijiju acknowledged.
“When @KirenRijiju explained why he and his party were calling the Opposition ‘mahila virodhi’, it was pointed out that no one could ever call me anti-women. He conceded the point,” Tharoor had written.
Tharoor, while expressing strong support for women, also cautioned against linking their progress to delimitation, which he described as potentially problematic.
The exchange comes amid political tensions over the failure of the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill concerning women’s reservation in the Lok Sabha. The bill, introduced earlier this month, failed to pass after receiving 298 votes, falling short of the required two-thirds majority.
Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla confirmed that the bill could not be passed due to insufficient support.
Reacting to the development, Rijiju termed the bill’s failure a setback for women and said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had indicated that the Opposition, particularly Congress, would have to answer for opposing it.
Following the bill’s failure, two other proposed bills related to delimitation and increasing the number of Lok Sabha seats were not taken up for voting.