Women's reservation bill is about removing bias, injustice: Kanimozhi

NEW DELHI: The women's reservation bill is not about reservation but an ''act of removing bias and injustice,'' DMK leader Kanimozhi said in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday while asserting that women want to be respected as equals.

Participating in the discussion on the constitutional amendment bill 'Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam', she said the clause pertaining to 'after delimitation' in the bill should be removed as there could be an inordinate delay in the implementation of the reservation for women.

The 33 per cent reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies, as proposed in the bill, will come into effect only after census and the delimitation exercise.

''How long should we wait to see this bill implemented? It can be easily implemented in the coming Parliamentary elections. This bill, you should understand, is not a reservation but an act of removing bias and injustice,'' she said.

She stressed that the politics of tokenism must evolve into politics of ideas.

''This bill is called the 'Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam'. Stop saluting us. We don't want to be saluted, we don't want to be put on pedestals, we do not want to be worshipped... we want to be respected as equals,'' she said.

Further, Kanimozhi said she has no hesitation in accepting that late Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa was a very strong woman. Jayalalithaa was the leader of AIADMK, the rival of DMK in Tamil Nadu.

The women's reservation bill, named Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam and introduced in the Lower House by Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal, will come into effect only after a delimitation exercise is completed and is, therefore, unlikely to be in force during the next Lok Sabha elections in 2024. The bill, which was introduced in the Lower House on Tuesday, is also the first bill introduced in the new Parliament building.