DMK betraying Tamils, women's rights: Andhra Pradesh CM Chandrababu Naidu

CHENNAI: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and BJP ally N Chandrababu Naidu on Monday criticised the DMK-Congress combine for blocking what he called the progressive 131st constitutional Amendment Bill, to increase seats in Parliament, with a political agenda.

Speaking to the media in Coimbatore, the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief said the DMK and its allies were obstructing key reform initiatives of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “It is a betrayal and great injustice to the nation, especially women,” he said, on the sidelines of his arrival to campaign for National Democratic Alliance (NDA) candidates in the city.

Claiming that NDA has delivered a stable government over the past decade, Naidu said, “development comes automatically wherever there is a double engine government. However, Tamil Nadu’s growth had slowed in the last five years. A state that was once a model of development is gradually losing its edge and corruption is on the rise under the DMK regime.”

Referring to Chief Minister MK Stalin’s claims that Tamil Nadu has defeated Delhi, Naidu said, “Delhi has not been defeated; instead, the aspirations of women have been defeated," in an obvious remark on the women's reservation bill that the BJP-led government said would be brought by hiking the number of MP seats.

Highlighting the history of women’s reservation efforts, Naidu noted that similar constitutional amendment bills had previously been introduced by former Prime Ministers HD Deve Gowda and Atal Bihari Vajpayee but had not succeeded. “The centre had proposed a 50 per cent increase in seats to strengthen representation, but the opposition parties derailed the initiative for political gain,” he alleged.

Demanding the DMK to apologise to women for opposing the Women’s Reservation Bill, Naidu said, “Some parties are consistently resisting such reforms. Under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership, India is on track to become number one globally.”