Hema Malini Talks About Women's Reservation Bill, Says 'No Other PM Has Done Such Things'

New Delhi: Veteran actor turned politician Hema Malini on Thursday lauded PM Modi after the clearance of the Women’s Reservation Bill in the Lok Sabha and said “No other PM has done such things”.

Talking exclusively to ANI, Hema Malini said, “Whatever PM Modi has done, he has done it with a good motive. No other PM has done such things...It's their (Opposition's) job to do it (oppose the bill), we don't bother about it..."

The bill was passed after a day-long debate in which several leaders across party lines put forth their views. The Congress was represented by its Parliamentary party leader Sonia Gandhi who urged the government to look into OBC and SC quota for women in the bill.

After hours of fierce debate, the Lok Sabha passed the Women's Reservation Bill with 454 votes which provides 33 per cent reservation for women in Lok Sabha and state assemblies. The Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-Eighth Amendment) Bill, 2023, was passed after a reply by Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal.

In a historic move, the Vice-President and the Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar on Thursday reconstituted the panel of vice-chairpersons comprising 13 women Rajya Sabha members for the day as the house discusses the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam Bill, 2023.

The Rajya Sabha Chairman emphasized that the presence of women MPs on the chair would send a powerful message to the world at large and it would symbolize that they held a ‘commanding position’ during this epochal moment of change.

The Rajya Sabha had earlier passed the Women’s Reservation Bill in 2010 during the Congress-led UPA government but it was not taken up in the Lok Sabha and subsequently lapsed in the lower House of Parliament.