'Mentioned Congress 59 times and women barely a few times': Opposition slams PM Modi's address to the nation

New Delhi: The Opposition on Saturday attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi's address to the nation on women's quota, calling it a "distress address", while insisting that he should apologise for delaying the 2023 women's reservation law instead of targeting his political rivals.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said a "desperate and frustrated" Prime Minister has turned an address to the nation into a "political speech, full of mudslinging, and outright lies".

“Modi-ji should stop lying to the nation. He should implement 3 reservation for women in the existing 543 Lok Sabha seats under the 2023 law. Do not deny women their due representation now. Stop mixing up the delimitation bills…Stop lying to the nation that this was an amendment to the Women’s Reservation Bill…It was not,” he said.

He said it was “purely” a Delimitation Bill, brought in to “create further division and redraw the electoral map in a manner that can only benefit the BJP”.

Kharge claimed that it was very clear how Modi misused official machinery to attack his opponents at a time the Model Code of Conduct was in place.

"Modi-ji mentioned Congress 59 times and women barely a few times. That tells the country everything about his priorities. Women are not the BJP’s priority. Congress is, because Congress stands on the right side of history," he claimed.

Congress General Secretary (Communications) Jairam Ramesh said Modi ended his speech by saying that there was a 'waqt ka intezaar' (wait for right time) for women’s quota but he should know that there is "no need for a muhurat (auspicious time)" to give India’s women their due. 

Congress "challenges" the Prime Minister to move a bill in the Parliament tomorrow to implement women’s reservation within the existing set up of the Lok Sabha, he said.

Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha floor leader Derek O'Brien said, "Narendra, the worst form of insulting women is to have used them as a decoy to try and pass the Delimitation Bill."

Senior RJD MP Manoj K Jha said Modi's address to the nation "truly appeared" to be an "electoral address" and in such a situation, it should be added to his election expenditure.

Former Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Priyanka Chaturvedi said it was "deeply disappointing" to hear the Prime Minister make no assurance of delinking the 2023 Act from Census and delimitation so as to make it implementable as passed by all parties in 2029 itself.