Ranjan confident of necessary support for marriage Bill

Congress Lok Sabha MP from Supaul, wife of MP Rajesh Ranjan (Pappu Yadav) and one who is better known for riding a Harley Davidson to Parliament on Women's Day, Ranjeet Ranjan seems confident while speaking to the Millenniu

The Parliamentarian is astonished that her Private Member's Bill has got support from both Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Cabinet and President of India Pranab Mukherjee on Wednesday. "I am quite surprised that my Private Member's Bill got approval," Ranjan added.

"I think when the PM talks about demonetisation and black money, my bill will also get a major push from his party," the Congress MP asserted.

She feels that it is necessary to impose a cap on marriage expenditure as most of it is "wasteful expenditure". "Nowadays, it has become necessary to show-off," the MP explained.

At the same time, she also clarified that there was no political interference from her party in the matter.

Adding further, she said, "Great importance should be assigned to the solemnisation of marriage between two individuals. But unfortunately, these days a tendency of showing off by spending lavishly is becoming a trend in the country."

"Poor families are under tremendous social pressure to spend more. This needs to be checked as it is not good for society at large. Even one of my staff is suffering from the same problem as he has to pay Rs 15 lakhs as dowry for his daughter's wedding," she asserted.

"We all belong to middle-class families, even I do. I had seen my parents to think about marriages of their six daughters. That too struck my mind," the Parliamentarian added.

Apart from the expenditure, the Bill also says all weddings shall be registered within 60 days of the solemnisation. "There is a need of marriage registration, especially for someone who marries an NRI or plans to settle abroad after marriage. They need to keep a proof of their marriages," she said.

The Parliamenterian, who is also mother of two, said that she got the inspiration to draft the "Marriage Bill" from her son Sarthak Ranjan, who is now a well known Ranji cricketer. On the contrary, the history shows that only 15 Private Member's Bills have ever been passed by the Indian Parliament. All of them came up for discussion but have rarely become law.

In the last Lok Sabha, 598 such Private Members' Bills were introduced and very little time was spent discussing any of these bills. Only four percent of the 300-odd such bills, 14 to be precise, were discussed. The rest of them lapsed without any debate.