Congress leader and former minister K Therie said although the Women’s Reservation Bill was linked to census and delimitation, it was a reality now and reminded everyone of the Congress’s promise of amending the Bill to implement it if given an opportunity.
In a press release, Therie was of the view that there would be at least 20 women legislators in the Nagaland Legislative Assembly following the 2028 elections in the state, while there would be at least 4-5 members in each urban local body (ULB), bringing their total number to at least 100 across the ULBs in the state.
He hoped that women’s representation in the legislature and ULBs, besides their participation in the governance process, would improve overall governance. Therie stressed that it was time for women to decide and join political parties, and learn about the constitution and functions of the parties.
He said that there were two diverse ideological parties in India, while other regional parties survived by supporting either one of the parties. Therie alleged that the BJP’s idea was Hindutva, which meant Hindu rashtra (nation), Hindi language and Hinduism.
Mentioning that Uniform Civil Code for the BJP meant one nation, one language and one religion, he accused the party of practising untouchability, prohibit women from entering temples and hating women.
He alleged that the BJP claimed India was the land of Hindus, and that Muslims and Christians had no right to rule.
Claiming that the ideology of the Congress was a secular, socialist and democratic republic, he reiterated that the party believed in unity in diversity.
He asserted that the Congress believed in freedom of religion, freedom of expression and aimed to provide justice and equality to all sections of people. “We are against untouchability. For Congress, all citizens are equal,” he declared.
With more or less 50% votes, the former minister stated that the women could change the political equations for, at the end of all, politics boiled down to vote.
Pointing out that there was nothing more important or powerful than the vote, he reminded everyone that only the vote was recognised, adding that all wisdom and narratives had no meaning without a vote.
Therie predicted that the culture of bribe would come to an end with God’s wrath, terming the present trend of bribing votes as un-Christian.
Noting that religion and politics were services to humanity and had the same goals, he assured that given an opportunity, technologies for a clean democratic election would be adopted.
He claimed to have seen an Anganwadi woman worker defeating a sitting chief minister. He said the woman had served the people in that constituency as an Anganwadi worker for almost 20 years and knew every house. After voting, he claimed that she had predicted of winning by 15 votes, though she actually won by a margin of 17 votes.
He reminded women of all ages that their minimum responsibility was 33%, which could not be taken away by men. He stressed women 18 years and above, especially retired employees, should join political parties.