BRS leader K Kavitha leads hunger strike demanding early passage of Women's Reservation bill

A day ahead of her appearance before the Enforcement Directorate in the Delhi liquor scam BRS leader K Kavitha on Friday commenced a sixhour hunger strike seeking early passage of the longpending Womens Reservation BillCPIM leader Sitaram Yechury inaugurated the strike programme at Jantar MantarAmong leaders present at the strike were Samajwadi Party leader Seema Shukla Telangana Education Minister Savita Indra Reddy as well as state Women and Child Welfare Minister Sathyavathi RathoreSanjay Singh and Chitra Sarwara AAP Naresh Gujral Akali Dal Anjum Javed Mirza PDP Shami Firdous NC Sushmita Dev TMC KC Tyagi JDU Seema Malik NCP Narayana K CPI Shyam Rajak RLD Priyanka Chaturvedi Shiva Sena and exCongress leader Kapil Sibal have confirmed their participationOur party will extend support to Kavitha in this protest till the bill is passed It is important to bring this bill to give equal opportunity to women in politics Yechury said in his inaugural addressAlso Read Delhi excise policy case Manish Sisodia to be produced before court at 2 pm ED seeking 10 days remandKavitha said If India needs to develop women should play a key role in politics For which it is important to bring this bill which is pending for last 27 yearsThis is just the beginning and the protest will continue across the country she addedThe bill which seeks to reserve 33 per cent seats in Lok Sabha and all state legislative assemblies for women was initially introduced in Lok Sabha on September 12 1996 by the United Front governmentThe Vajpayee government pushed for the bill in Lok Sabha but it still wasnt passedHowever the UPAI government led by Congress again introduced it in May 2008 and was passed in the Rajya Sabha but it was referred to a standing committee In 2010 it was passed in the House and transmitted finally to the Lok Sabha However the bill lapsed with the 15th Lok Sabha Since then the bill has been lying in cold storageKavitha the daughter of Telangana Chief Minister M K Chandrasekhar Rao had on Thursday said the bill has been lying in cold storage since 2010 and the Modi government has a historic opportunity to get it passed in Parliament before 2024Prime Minister Narendra Modi had promised in both 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha polls that his government would bring this bill and that it was also part of the BJPs election manifestoNone of the BJP leaders raised this issue and the Modi government has failed to get this bill passed in Parliament despite having a majority she said and added This is a very saddening issueKavitha had also said the hunger strike was planned a week before but the ED summoned her to depose before it on March 9 just a day before the planned agitation The agency agreed to her request to appear on March 11 after the agitationThe BRS leader has been summoned by the ED in connection with a money laundering case linked to alleged irregularities in the excise policyThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever