Rahul Gandhi tells Modi to walk the talk, offers unconditional support to pass Women’s Reservation Bill

Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Monday offered unconditional support to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to pass the Women’s Reservation Bill by Parliament.

''Our PM says he’s a crusader for women’s empowerment? Time for him to rise above party politics, walk-his-talk & have the Women’s Reservation Bill passed by Parliament. The Congress offers him its unconditional support.Attached is my letter to the PM,'' Rahul Gandhi wrote on Twitter and attached the letter to PM Modi.

In the letter, Rahul wrote: "BJP appears to have had second thoughts even though this [Women Reservation Bill] was one of its key promises in its 2014 manifesto."

Rahul said that there is no better time to pass the bill and added that any further delay makes the bill impossible to implement before the next general elections in 2019.

The letter comes amid recent controversy over PM Modi's allegation that Rahul has claimed the Congress to be a party of Muslim men.

In a rally in Uttar Pradesh, PM Modi on July 14 had said, "I have read in a newspaper that Congress president has said that Congress is a party of Muslims. I am not surprised as when Manmohan Singh was PM, he had said that Muslims have the first right over natural resources."

He had also accused the Congress of playing vote-bank politics and questioned whether the party actually cared for the Muslim women. "All I want to ask is, is their party only for Muslim men or for women too?" PM Modi had said at a rally.

The Congress hit back in the last two days accusing PM Modi of spreading the "poison of hatred and division".

The demand to get the Women's Reservation Bill passed has been a long-standing one.

The bill seeks to reserve one-third (or 33 per cent) of all seats for women in Lok Sabha and state legislative assemblies.

A third of the total seats reserved for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes will also be reserved for women from these categories in Lok Sabha and legislative assemblies.

The reserved seats may be allocated by rotation to different constituencies in the state or Union Territory.

According to the bill, the reservation of seats for women will cease to exist 15 years after the implementation of the Act.