Cong resorting to dictatorship on women's bill: Mulayam
Press Trust of India / New Delhi Mar 09, 2010, 17:09 IST
SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav today accused the Government of resorting to 'dictatorship' over the issue of Women's Reservation Bill and said the move will prove 'catastrophic' for it.
Yadav said the meeting of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh with the opponents of the bill failed to yield any result.
"No result came out" was his response when asked what has been the outcome of the meeting of Singh with him, RJD chief Lalu Prasad and JD-U chief Sharad Yadav, the key opponents of the women's bill in its present form.
Asked what has been the result of his talks with Congress President Sonia Gandhi on the floor of the House, Yadav said, "Who is ready to listen. Nobody is willing to listen."
He said if the government agrees to give reservation to Muslim women separately in the bill, his party will support it.
"Whatever be the percentage of reservation. Our issue is simple. Give reservation to Muslim women separately. There is one Muslim MP in Lok Sabha from 12 states. If Muslim men could not enter Lok Sabha, what is the hope that Muslim women will be represented.
"We have demanded that at least give reservation to Muslim women but the government is not listening," Yadav said.
He said the bill is a 'conspiracy' to finish off leaders of backward classes who have emerged tall. Yadav claimed that the government has become "haughty and dictator", saying, "Whoever becomes proud is bound to finished. They (the government) will be finished."
It is pathetic to see Mulayam play the Muslim card to camouflage his real intention for opposing the women's reservation bill. His carefully cultivated caste based vote banks will be destroyed and he has to deliver on economic development which he never did even after being Chief Minister of UP for four terms. His sole rallying cry has been "unflinching" support to Muslims even though he did precious little for their upliftment in his 4 terms as CM. As Amar Singh his expelled partner says the Samajwadi party is a mere Yadav mahasabha with all posts occupied by Mulayam's family members. Mulayam can now bid goodbye to his brand of regressive caste politics. Either he tunes into the new political realities or he is history.