Lucknow, March 25 (IANS) Undeterred by the flak on his remark that men would be provoked to “indulge in eve teasing” if the women’s quota bill were to be passed, Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Mulayam Singh Yadav Thursday said it was a deliberate comment to kick off a debate on the issue.
“I intentionally made the remarks as I wanted a debate to start on the women reservation bill,” Mulayam Yadav told a gathering here.

“I made those remarks so that people think about the condition and situation which women will have to face due to the bill,” he added.

He said he had no intention of hurting women and stated: “I want to make it clear that no other political party other than the SP have given more respect to women.”

The SP leader, who had been opposing the bill since its introduction in the Rajya Sabha, had said the women’s reservation bill, if passed, would bring to parliament “the women youth would o whistle at”.

“If the women’s reservation bill were to be passed in its existing form, it would result in flooding the parliament and state legislatures with wives of government officials and women connected with big industrial houses. I don’t like to say this, but they would be the women touth woud whistle at,” he said.

The remark attracted condemnation not just from women’s activists and politicians but also from his former confidants Amar Singh and Jaya Prada. While former SP general secretary Amar Singh hoped that the National Commission for Women would take cognizance of the “Talibani” comment, Jaya Prada said: “After hearing such remarks, I feel liberated that I am not in the party.”

The bill, reserving 33 percent seats in the Lok Sabha and state legislatures for women, has been passed by the Rajya Sabha and is to be tabled in the Lok Sabha.