From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network
Bengaluru,Jun 12: Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah lambasted the Opposition parties, particularly BJP and JD(S), for their lip service to the women while talking a lot on empowerment of women.
Both the BJP, which is ruling at the Centre and the JD(S), have done precious little for the uplift of women, the chief minister said at a function to mark the assumption of office by Laxmi Hebbalkar as the president of Karnataka Mahila Congress in Bengaluru on Friday.
Surprisingly, the outgoing State Mahila Congress chief Manjula Naidu was conspicuous by her absence when Laxmi Hebbalkar was installed in her place.
Siddaramaiah launched a scathing attack on JD(S), the party headed by him in the State before he joined the Congress, and said the party had done practically nothing for furthering the cause of women or for their welfare except having its party symbol of ' a woman farm labourer carrying a stack of paddy on her head.'
Making a strong pitch for women’s reservation in parliament and State Assemblies, the chief minister said the Congress party empowered women by reserving 50 per cent of seats in gram panchayats for women.
Nearly 50,000 women have been elected to the gramapanchayats in the just concluded elections, he said adding nearly 3,000 women would be heading GPs for the next five years.
He said the Opposition political parties have never given a serious thought on providing political reservation to women from GPs to parliament.
The JD(S), which was confined to only a couple of districts, has no programmes for empowerment of women, Siddaramaiah said.
The JD (S) supremo H D DeveGowda only dreams bringing the party to power and is only interested in projecting his progeny, the chief minister said.
The chief minister said the BJP also did not do much for uplifting the women or working for their empowerment.
Uttar Pradesh Congress MLA Rita Bahuguna Joshi said the Congress party would put pressure on the Modi government, which has majority in the Lower House, to pass the bill to set aside 33 per cent reservation for women in the parliament and state legislative assemblies.
She said RSS has no women members and leaders and took exception to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent male chauvinistic remarks on Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina during the visit to the neighbouring country.
Congress MP PrabhaThaku and Karnataka Pradesh Congress President G Parameshwara, and State Ministers were present at the function.