Women’s quota: Naveen Patnaik slams national parties, Dharmendra Pradhan counters
BHUBANESWAR: Chief minister Naveen Patnaik here on Saturday said the BJD will press for 33% women’s reservation in Parliament and state assemblies in every session and slammed the national parties for using women’s issues as election slogans only. Countering Naveen, Union petroleum and steel minister Dharmendra Pradhan said contrary to the CM’s claims, women’s empowerment is the basic tenant of Narendra Modi government.
Naveen, who is also the BJD president, was speaking at an event to mark the regional party’s 24th foundation day here. The BJD was founded on December 26, 1997. “National parties remember women empowerment during elections and commit in their manifesto only to conveniently forget after winning the elections. BJD will keep reminding them about this forgotten promise,” Naveen said, adding “We can’t deprive half of our population of their rights. They must have their rightful place in the political space of our country. Though ours is a regional party, we will strengthen our demand for 33% reservation for them.”
The CM said BJD has become a social movement and women are the soul of this social movement. No household, no state, no country has progressed without empowering its women. Notably, the BJD has a loyal vote bank in women, powered by more than six lakh self-help groups.
“I have always said women empowerment is my dearest to me,” Naveen said reminding his party workers and leaders of party ideologue Biju Patnaik’s initiative in 1992 providing 33% reservation for women in panchyats, urban bodies and in state government jobs. Notably, the Naveen government in 2012 raised women’s quota in local bodies’ election to 50%.
Pradhan responded to Naveen’s criticism of national parties at a farmers’ rally in Dhenkanal, 100 km from here, and said, “Naveen babu is trying to say PM Modi is anti-women. But, Modi government’s main doctrine is women’s empowerment and their development.”
Modi government has been making toilets in rural areas under Swachh Bharat and providing subsidized LPG under Pradhan Mantri Ujjawala Yojana to empower women and respect their dignity. More than 77 lakh toilets have been built in Odisha alone. More than 68 lakh LPG cylinders were given free of cost in the state to during the pandemic, which are moves to empower women only, he said, directly countering Naveen for the first time after 2019 general elections.