Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Sept 20: The “Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam,” the bill to provide 33 per cent reservation to women in the Lok Sabha and the state Assemblies through the Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-eighth Amendment) Bill, 2023, was passed by the Lok Sabha on Wednesday with 454 votes in favour and only two against.
The bill was adopted after the union home minister Amit Shah giving reply to the debate sought to allay some of the apprehensions of the opposition members who had been demanding immediate implementation of the measure and with a quota for the OBC’s within the women’s reservation.
The former Congress president Sonia Gandhi supported the bill but wanted that “caste census should be conducted to ensure reservation for women from Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and OBC.” Weighing in on the debate, Rahul Gandhi also said it was an “incomplete” Bill without reservation for OBC women.
The Opposition has criticised the clauses in the Bill according to which the quota will only be implemented after the delimitation exercise after a Census. Shiromani Akali Dal leader Harsimrat Kaur Badal highlighted the delay in enforcing the women’s reservation Bill. Calling it a “jumla”, she said, “when it was known that the Women’s Reservation Bill was being brought, the hopes were built up till there only to be dashed in 24 hours because in the details lies the devil… The details have come out that the bill will be implemented after the census and delimitation take place” which would mean that women would not get the benefit of the quota bill earlier than the 2029 Parliamentary elections.
Amit Shah attempted to address the Opposition’s two big queries — why the implementation of women’s quota is being delayed by tying it to census and delimitation. He pointed out that the Delimitation Commission was the only body that can take call on which seats to reserve indicating that census data was the bedrock on which such decisions are taken. As for the alleged delay, the task of census and delimitation would begin after next year’s general election, he added.
The government was trying to push through the bill to reserve 33 per cent seats for women in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies in the ongoing special session of Parliament. But the reservation can only be implemented after a census and delimitation exercise, which, under Article 82, can be conducted after 2026. This pushes the time frame of the quota implementation to 2029 — which has been questioned multiple parties.
“The Delimitation Commission is an important body for the poll process in the country,” Mr Shah said during the debate on the bill in special session of parliament. “If we are reserving one-third seats, then who will do it? If we do it, you will question it… If we reserve Wayanad or Hyderabad, you will say it is political,” said the minister, with a dig at Rahul Gandhi and AIMIM Chief Asaduddin Owaisi.
Mr Shah also took on Rahul Gandhi’s comment that the bill in its current form was “incomplete” and that he wanted OBC reservation included. “Some people think secretaries run country, I think the government does; 85 BJP MPs, 29 ministers are from Other Backward Classes,” Mr Shah said.
During the debate, the opposition parties, including Congress and Trinamool Congress, extending their support to the bill criticised the BJP-led Centre for bringing the Bill after “13 years” since it was first passed in the Rajya Sabha in 2010. Earlier on Tuesday, Congress had dubbed the introduction of the Bill as an “election jumla” and “a huge betrayal of the hopes of women.”
Amit Shah said soon after the Lok Sabha elections, the government would conduct the census and delimitation exercise – post which there will be one-third of women in the Parliament. “I request all Opposition parties, if you think something is missing, we’ll fix it. But this is a historic achievement. Please let it pass. Let’s come together and pass the bill,” Amit Shah said.
