'Cowardly, hypocritical and fork-tongued': Mamata Banerjee hits back at PM Modi over women’s reservation bill

NEW DELHI: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Sunday responded sharply to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's criticism of opposition parties including TMC over the failure of the women’s reservation Bill.In a long message shared on social media, she accused the Prime Minister of misleading the country instead of addressing concerns directly. She also defended her party, the All India Trinamool Congress, saying it had consistently supported women’s political representation. "It is deeply unfortunate that the Prime Minister chose to mislead the nation rather than address it honestly," she wrote, adding that the Trinamool Congress had one of the highest proportions of women representatives in Parliament and the state legislature. "The question of opposing women's reservation does not arise and never has," she said.Mamta, however, made it clear that her party opposes the proposed delimitation exercise alleging that the Centre was trying to push it using women’s reservation as a cover for political gain. "What we are fundamentally opposed to is the delimitation exercise that the Modi government was plotting to push through by using women as a shield for its vested political agenda," she wrote.Claiming that such steps would alter the Constitution, she said, "This is an assault on federal democracy. And we will not watch it happen in silence." Questioning the timing of the bill, the West Bengal CM asked why the government delayed implementation of the bill after its passage in September 2023 and why it was being linked to delimitation. She also criticised the Prime Minister for not addressing Parliament directly. "The next time you address the nation, have the courage to do so from the floor of Parliament," she wrote, calling his remarks "cowardly, hypocritical and fork-tongued.""What you did yesterday was cowardly, hypocritical and fork-tongued. You can feel power slipping through your fingers. And you are prepared to go to any extent to hold on for just a little while longer," she said.Her response came after PM Modi, in his address to the nation on Saturday night, blamed opposition parties for blocking the bill. "For us, national interest comes first. But for some people, when party interest becomes everything, then women’s empowerment and the nation’s interest suffer," he said, adding that "the selfish politics of parties like Congress, DMK, TMC and SP has cost the women of this country."