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Modi asks MPs to connect with transgenders, give respect and dignity to them

In his 40-minute address, during which he touched on various issues including Goods and Services Tax (GST), social harmony, nationalism and party's Tiranga Yatra, Modi underlined the need to adopt a humane approach towards transgenders.

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BJP senior leader LK Advani with other party leaders after the parliamentary party meeting on Tuesday
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Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave several messages to BJP MPs at the ritualistic parliamentary party meeting on Tuesday morning, But, of them he may have conveyed one– showing sensitivity and respect to transgenders– emphatically for the first time.

In his 40-minute address, during which he touched on various issues including Goods and Services Tax (GST), social harmony, nationalism and party's Tiranga Yatra, Modi underlined the need to adopt a humane approach towards transgenders. He asked the party MPs to connect with transgenders by organising meetings with them, according to sources.

Describing the transgender bill, pending in Parliament, as one of government's biggest social reform measures, he said they have suffered for no fault of theirs. He said development for all included transgenders and the steps being taken by the government was aimed at ensuring social acceptance for them.

Modi struck the human note even as he asked MPs to make the Tiranga Yatra, part of the party's grand plans to celebrate 70th Independence Day, a symbol of social harmony at a time when a "deliberate" attempt was being made to divide society on caste lines, according to the sources. He said that divisive attempts can be effectively countered by inculcating a sense of nationalism.

The theme song, composed by Kesiraju Srinivas, known as Gazal Srinivas, for the Independence Day celebrations was also released at the meeting.

The Prime Minister asked the MPs to take the Tiranga Yatra seriously, make optimum use of social media platform to connect with people and send daily reports about it. He also sought online reports of their performance over the past two years.

While lauding the unanimous passage of the GST bill as an example of cooperative federalism, he said finance minister Arun Jaitley and the two ministers of state-- Santosh Gangwar and Arjun Meghwal-- should be felicitated in all economically relevant places to send the message about how the country will benefit from the new tax regime.

Within hours of the parliamentary party meeting, the last in the ongoing monsoon session, the transgenders bill was listed in business for the week by the Business Advisory Committee (BAC) of Lok Sabha. This was among the half a dozen bills, including the maternity benefit bill, on the agenda for the last three days left of the monsoon session.

Besides, the government has also agreed to the Opposition demand for a debate on atrocities on Dalits. The government had rejected the proposal last week saying development issues and Sustainable Development Goals should be given priority. Speaker Sumitra Mahajan had then said that it could be debated as a social issue. The government was under attack over the beating of Dalits for skinning a dead cow in Gujarat. Modi, however, broke his silence over the weekend castigating the perpetrators of violence and saying "attack me, not Dalits."

However, DMK MP Tiruchi Siva, whose private member's bill on transgender rights was passed last year in Rajya Sabha, said the government's bill was not comprehensive enough. He said it did not have any provision for self-identification of a transgender as mandated by the SC judgement of 2012, or the two per cent reservation for transgenders in jobs and education that his bill provides. It also did not mention any special court for transgenders, their right to file a case of harassment under the IPC in cases of discriminative violence, of providing protective custody and maintenance in such cases, legal aid under NALSA or SLSA, and the need to have a commission on the lines of the NCW, according to him.

Debate on on atrocities on Dalits: Oppn

Besides, the government has also agreed to the Opposition demand for a debate on atrocities on Dalits. The government had rejected the proposal last week saying development issues and Sustainable Development Goals should be given priority. Speaker Sumitra Mahajan had then said that it could be debated as a social issue. The government was under attack over the beating of Dalits for skinning a dead cow in Gujarat. Modi, however, broke his silence over the weekend castigating the perpetrators of violence and saying "attack me, not Dalits."

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