BRS leader K Kavitha begins hunger strike demanding Women’s Reservation Bill in Parliament

BRS leader K Kavitha began a one-day hunger strike on March 10, demanding the introduction of the women reservation bill in Parliament, a day before her appearance before the enforcement directorate in the excise case. She called her movement historic and demanded that the Prime Minister-led Bharatiya Janata Party government introduce the bill.

The women’s reservation bill has been pending for 27 years, and many women's organizations have tried to work on it, said BRC MLC Kavitha. She recalled the efforts of then Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda in 1996, who introduced the Constitution (81st A) Bill in Parliament to reserve a third of the seats for women in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies after years of agitation by women.

“We will take this movement all over India until the women’s reservation bill is passed,” Kavitha told the sit-in protest at the Jantar Mantar. The protest for the women’s reservation bill is being organised by the NGO Bharat Jagruti. Leaders from the CPI-(M), BRS, Shiv Sena, and the Aam Aadmi Party among others, were present at the protest site, while CPI (M) senior leader Sitaram Yechury inaugurated the event.

Kavitha has been called by the enforcement directorate so that she can be confronted with Hyderabad-based businessman Arun Ramchandran Pillai, an alleged frontman of the “south group” who was arrested by the ED on March 6. The agency will record Kavitha’s statement under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) during this confrontation.

The Delhi government’s excise policy for 2021-22 to grant licenses to liquor traders allegedly allowed cartelization and favored certain dealers who had allegedly paid bribes for it. A charge strongly refuted by AAP. The policy was later scrapped, and Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena recommended a CBI probe, following which the ED registered a case under the PMLA.