“Political Gimmick”: Sanjay Raut Attacks Govt Over Failed Women’s Bill

In a significant setback for the central government, the Women’s Reservation Bill (Nari Shakti Vandan Bill) was defeated in the Lok Sabha on Friday after falling short of the required votes.

Meanwhile, the opposition has strongly criticised the government on this issue, and Shiv Sena (Thackeray faction) MP Sanjay Raut also lashed out at the government. 

Raut said, “The slogan ‘Modi hai to mumkin hai’ (If Modi is there, it’s possible) has now become a myth. At best, it can 
now be said ‘Modi hai to namkeen hai’ (If Modi is there, it’s just spicy talk). They give such ‘spicy’ speeches, and their own people applaud while licking their lips. The bill brought by Amit Shah seems as if it were introduced to insult Narendra Modi. The Bharatiya Janata Party does not even have its own majority and cannot gather a two-thirds majority.” Raut added. 

He further said, “In such a situation, bringing a bogus bill in the name of women’s reservation in the Lok Sabha shows that their real intention was never to grant rights or reservation to women. Instead, their aim was to increase the seats from 543 to 850 and secure permanent power and continuous electoral victories. Apart from this, Amit Shah and his associates had no other intention,” Raut said in strong criticism.

He further alleged that the bill was about achieving victory through unfair and illegal means, “a delimitation bill for unfair victory.” According to him, the only objective was to increase the seats to 850 in the name of women. He also claimed that this move aimed to create divisions in the country, such as North vs South and men vs women, and to establish a narrative that they alone are the saviours of women.

Raut added that if the government were truly committed to women’s welfare, then in 2023, when the Women’s Reservation Bill was passed, they could have easily provided 33% reservation for women within the existing 543 seats. Everyone, including Uddhav Thackeray, would have supported it. Instead, he alleged that this was a conspiracy to increase the number of seats to 850 to protect the positions of male MPs and leaders within the BJP. He said this plan was democratically defeated in Parliament itself.

Raut concluded by accusing the BJP of hypocrisy, deception, and exploitation in the name of women, claiming that the opposition has exposed it.