Not very appropriate: Anupriya Patel on Tharoor's women excelling in science and tech sans quota remark

New Delhi: Congress MP Shashi Tharoor's remarks on Thursday that women are increasingly excelling in the field of science and technology and their numbers may grow further without any reservation "unlike in Parliament and state assemblies" evoked sharp reaction from Union Minister Anupriya Patel.

Participating in a discussion in the Lok Sabha on the success of the Chandrayaan-3 mission and other achievements of the nation in the space sector, Tharoor said the watershed moment of India landing a spacecraft on the Moon was the culmination of the efforts put in by all the governments over the past six decades, starting from the days of Jawaharlal Nehru.

"I would also like to point out that many of the stalwarts in our space programme have been women scientists and engineers. Some 20 per cent of ISRO's key personnel are women. As women increasingly excel in science and technology studies, this number may only go up. "Unlike in our Parliament and Legislative Assemblies, they would not need reservations either," the Congress MP from Thiruvananthapuram said. He, however, asserted that he was in favour of giving reservation to women. Tharoor said that science and technology was increasingly becoming a women's field. "I can tell you this from the experience of addressing many convocations.

I have been giving away prizes in many convocations of science and technology and engineering colleges. I am in favour of reservations though. "Even when the women students are all in minority, maybe 20 to 30 per cent of the students, they are 90 per cent of the medal winners, prize winners, and all other winners," he said. "This is becoming increasingly a women's field and we will all be the better for it." After Tharoor completed his speech, Anupriya Patel intervened and said she did not "much agree" with the Congress member over his remark. "It is not very appropriate... Just yesterday, we passed a very historic Bill providing reservation to women in Parliament," the Union minister said. Tharoor clarified that he meant no disrespect to either women in general or the very many women members in the Lok Sabha who have been elected without any benefit or reservation for all these years. "She appears to have misunderstood the thrust of my remarks... We have said that we need reservation because the numbers are not enough. That is why we passed the women's reservation bill yesterday. "I am saying that in science and technology, we already have 20 per cent women in ISRO and the numbers are going up. That is my point," the Congress MP said. After Tharoor's clarification, Union Minister Jitendra Singh intervened and said, "We need not carry this further because I am very sure, and I trust my friend, that Shashi ji has never been anti-women."