Increase Women’s Representation In The State: Sharmila

Hyderabad, Sept 6 (Hydnow): YSRTP President Y.S Sharmila asked BRS MLC K.Kavitha, daughter of the BRS President and Chief Minister K.Chandrasekhar Rao to calculate the percentage of women candidates in the BRS list for coming Assembly elections. 

she asked Kavitha to ask her father to increase women’s representation in the Telangana Assembly, before waving the National level fight. She sends her online calculator to check the meager percentage of women representation in KCR’s list before seeking support for the Women’s Reservation Bill. 

Sharmila wrote a strong note to Kavitha after the latter wrote to her, seeking her support for the Women’s Reservation  Bill,  She shared the list of BRS women candidates announced by KCR for the upcoming assembly elections, and she quotes the meagre percentage that was less than  5 per cent in any given elections. 

In reply to Kavitha’s letter, Sharmila wrote, While I acknowledge the receipt of the letter from you, where you sought my support to the Women’s Reservation Bill, I fail to understand how you can take this fight to the national platform, without doing justice to women in Telangana.  In the three successive Assembly elections or since the formation of Telangana State, your party did not allocate more than 5 percent of tickets to women candidates.  This is a glaring irony that the daughter of a Chief Minster does not question her father over this gross underrepresentation of women in the State Assembly, as well as in his cabinet, but will wage a relentless battle in Delhi.  I think the first step to prove your sincerity on this issue must be towards ensuring more women’s representation in the Telangana Assembly.  

Sharmila in her reply said I draw your attention to your government’s double standards, do you realize that in 2014 your party gave tickets to women to just 5 percent of Assembly seats, while you shamefully plunged to a further low in 2018, when women representation was just 4 percent, why did you never raise your voice against this as a woman? 

 Why was only one woman, YOU, the daughter of the party president, given a ticket fight in the Lok Sabha elections in 2014? And why this number did not go beyond 2 candidates, again one among the two being YOU, in 2019?

 Why wasn’t there not even a single woman minister in your father’s first-term rule?, How was the state made to function without full-time Women Commission, for long?  While you were making a ruckus over the Women’s Reservation Bill, your father once again deceived women, by declaring a meager number of woman contestants for the upcoming Assembly elections. How do you justify this?

When your government has repeatedly demeaned women by pushing them to perpetual depths of underrepresentation, what moral right do you have in questioning the commitment and concern of other parties?

Finally, what makes you press this urgency button now, after whiling away for ages? Is it the upcoming Telangana elections? Or, is it because your party feels the Bill may be tabled in this Parliament session? So, you want to take credit for this?

As a woman, I stand for increased representation of women in the State Assemblies and in the Parliament. I at the same time, cannot be a part of your larger political game well-timed to reap electoral benefits. However, I offer to support you in this cause, if you take up the issue and impress upon your father to begin this exercise immediately in the state. We are sure this is possible and easier to implement for your government. So, win on the home turf first, and then cover the country.

I am enclosing the list of BRS candidates recently announced by your father for the upcoming Assembly elections. Please calculate the percentage of women who have got the tickets to contest, before you collect your air ticket to fly to Delhi and fight for the Women’s Reservation Bill.

Also sharing the link – https://www.calculator.net (online calculator) will ease the process of calculation for you.

I shall wait for your government’s decision to begin the reforms in Telangana Assembly. In the end, I wish to remind you of what Mahatma Gandhi said, “Be the change you want to see”! (Hydnow) 

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