'TMC tried to sabotage Women's Bill'

New Delhi, 11 Mar: Charging Trinamool Congress with trying to "sabotage" the Women's Reservation Bill's passage in Rajya Sabha, CPI(M) today said its claims that it had not been consulted on the issue was "ridiculous" as all laws which came before Parliament had to be cleared by the Cabinet.

It asserted that issues relating to improving the status of women belonging to OBC or Muslim community "should not and cannot be allowed to be used as an excuse to prevent reservations for women in political institutions," though these must be addressed through concrete measures.

"Such efforts to sabotage the passing of this legislation this time around found a new ally, the TMC," CPI(M) Politburo member Sitaram Yechury said in an editorial in the forthcoming issue of party organ People's Democracy.

Observing that TMC has claimed that the government had not consulted them on the issue, he said "this is indeed strange.

No piece of legislation can come before Parliament unless cleared by the cabinet.

"As members of the Union Cabinet, it is ridiculous to advance such an excuse," Yechury said, adding that TMC has "emerged as a party that opposes reservations for women".

He said TMC's reasoning that the bill in the current form was inadequate unless special provisions are made for Muslim women "does not gel" as they had opposed the West Bengal government's decision to implement the Ranganath Mishra Committee's recommendation to provide quota to Muslim OBCs in jobs and education.


(PTI)