A day after Congress President Rahul Gandhi's letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the passage of the Women's Reservation Bill, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Ravi Shankar Prasad on Tuesday put forth a "new deal."
In a letter to the Gandhi scion, Prasad said that both the BJP and the Congress should come together "to ensure equality and adequate representation" to Indian women.
"We should pass in both Houses of Parliament the Woman Reservation Bill, the law prohibiting Triple Talaq and imposing penal consequences on those who violate the law prohibiting Nikah Halala. As national parties we cannot have two sets of standards in dealing with women and their rights," the letter read.
However, Prasad questioned Gandhi why the Bill, which was first proposed by the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government, could not be passed during the UPA rule.
"The Government welcomes your initiative to support the Bill. However, the Government would like to understand fully the reasons why the Bill was not taken up for three years by the UPA Government in the Lok Sabha and allowed to lapse," Prasad wrote in his letter.
He also asked if all the allies of the Congress and other opposition partners were going to support the Bill and not disrupt the house as they had done on previous occasions.
Ahead of the commencement of the monsoon session of Parliament, Rahul Gandhi had, on Monday, written a letter to Prime Minister Modi, seeking his support to ensure the passage of the Women's Reservation Bill.
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He said that his party had collected over 3.2 million signatures of Indian men and women to support the Bill.
On a related note, the monsoon session of Parliament will begin on Wednesday.