Parties squabble over women’s quota bill but extend support

The bill, with a sub-quota for scheduled castes and scheduled tribes, was the first to be introduced in the new Parliament building, 13 years after the first attempt to pass it. Despite their criticism about the lack of a clear timeline to implement the law, all opposition parties are expected to support it.

The bill provides for one-third reservation of seats for women in the Lok Sabha in all state assemblies and the assembly of the Union Territory of Delhi. The seats will be reserved through rotation. Lok Sabha functionaries said the bill is likely to be passed by the Lower House on Wednesday and the Upper House on Friday.

The bill does not set any timeline for its implementation, stating it will take effect after taking into account the next census and a delimitation exercise – a point that drew the ire of the opposition.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed the legislation, tabled by law minister Arjun Ram Meghwal, adding his government is committed to increasing the participation of women in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies. Appealing to all MPs to support the bill, Modi said, “For years, there have been several debates and controversies around women’s reservation. Earlier, too, there have been many efforts to bring the bill to Parliament. But it was in 1996 when the first women reservation bill was introduced during the tenure of (late PM) Atal Bihari Vajpayee.”

“In the past, several attempts were made to pass the Women’s Reservation Bill, but not enough numbers could be mustered, and the dream remained unfulfilled,” Modi said. “God has chosen me to ensure the rights of women and put their power to use,” Modi said, adding, “Our government has taken another step in that direction. The Union cabinet approved the women’s reservation bill on Monday evening. This date, 19 September, will be etched in history.”

“This is our bill,” former Congress president Sonia Gandhi told journalists when she arrived at the Parliament.

The Congress party’s Rajya Sabha chief whip Jairam Ramesh said, “As we had pointed out earlier, the Modi government has not yet conducted the 2021 decadal census, making India the only country in G20 that has failed to carry out the census. Now, it says the reservation for women will come into effect only following the first decadal census conducted after the Women’s Reservation Bill has become an Act. When will this census take place?”

“Will the census and delimitation be done before the 2024 elections? Basically, the bill gets the headlines today with a very vague promise of its implementation date. This is nothing but EVM —EVent Management,” he alleged. However, the party is expected to support the bill.

The Trinamool Congress, the second-largest party in Parliament, termed it a gimmick. “This is another classic Modi jumla. Make the promise but forget about the implementation. The title of the bill should be 2034, as it won’t be implemented before that,” the party’s Rajya Sabha leader Derek O’Brien said.

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav demanded that reservation should also maintain a balance in gender and social justice and demanded clarity on the share of backward classes, Dalits, minorities, and tribals in the reserved seats.

Bahujan Samaj Party leader Mayawati announced support for the bill. She said in Lucknow that her party will support any bill that allows reservation for women in Parliament and other legislatures, even if the party’s demand for a quota for the SC, ST and OBC within that quota is not met.

The Aam Aadmi Party, too, was unimpressed, even as it offered to support the bill. AAP leader Atishi alleged that it was a bill to “befool women ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.”

“A closer reading of the provisions of the bill shows that it is ‘Mahila Bewakoof Banao’ bill,” she said.

Updated: 20 Sep 2023, 12:49 AM IST