Sushma urges support for women's reservation bill

The Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday said the 16th Lok Sabha should be the one which passes the much-delayed women's reservation bill.

"A lot of parties have spoken about women empowerment, but we have done our bit by making a woman the chief minister of Gujarat. We also have 25% women in our cabinet and even the speaker of Lok Sabha is a woman," External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said during a debate in the lower house on the motion of thanks on the president's address.

Urging all members of the house to support the bill when it is introduced in parliament, Swaraj named leader of Congress in the Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge and said: "I request you to support the women's reservation bill when we introduce it just as we did when you introduced."

The government Monday announced a policy of "zero tolerance" for violence against women, and said it was committed to providing 33% reservation to women in parliament and state legislatures.

The bill, which reserves 33% of seats in parliament and the state legislatures for women, lapsed for the fourth time with the 15th Lok Sabha holding its last sitting ahead of the April-May general elections.