'English-speaking actresses from TV serials with short hair... ': SP leader's foot in mouth on Women's Reservation Bill

The Samajwadi Party (SP) has has come out openly to oppose the Women’s Reservation Bill tabled in Lok Sabha Tuesday and, at that, with a barrage of anti-women comments. Back in 2010, former chief of Samajwadi Party (SP) late Mulayam Singh Yadav had courted controversy by his remarks that if the Women’s Reservation Bill is passed it will fill Parliament with the kind of women who invite catcalls and whistles. Now, on the day when the government tabled the bill in the Lok Sabha, another SP leader his party leader I P Singh has said, “The women working in TV serials talking in English with short cropped hair will take away the rights of our poor sisters and daughters.” “How will there be justice for our Dalit, deprived, exploited and backward class sisters and daughters in 33 per cent women’s reservation?” Singh asked in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. He went on to say that if the Women’s Reservation Bill is introduced in the parliament then they will have to give reservation under SC, ST, OBC.

Tabling Women’s Reservation Bill in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday, Union Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal specifically said, “An amendment in Article 330A through which, reservation of seats for SC/ST which is already there, we are including 33 per cent reservation for women.” The Bill was tabled amid uproar by the Opposition who were demanding more clarity on women’s quota bill. Responding to them, BJP leaders said, “the revolutionary bill has been uploaded and can be viewed by the MPs.” Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla said the Women’s Reservation Bill the discussion on the Women’s Reservation Bill will take place on 20 September. With inputs from agencies