‘An insult to Nari Shakti’: Amit Shah angry with opposition over failure of women’s reservation amendment in Lok Sabha

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday blamed the opposition for the failure of the constitutional amendment to women’s quota in the Legislative Council, terming it an “insult to Nari Shakti”.

Shah said that Congress and its allies blocked the adoption of the basic constitutional amendment to the law granting women a 33 percent quorum in legislative councils, describing it as “beyond imagination and deserving of reprehensible.”

“Today, a very strange scene unfolded in the Lok Sabha. Congress, TMC, DMK and Samajwadi Party did not allow the Nari Shakti Vandhan Adhiniyam Party Constitution Amendment Bill to be passed. Rejecting the bill that would give women 33% quota, celebrating it and raising shouts of victory over it is truly reprehensible and beyond imagination,” Shah wrote on X.

“Now, the women of the country will not get 33% in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies, which was their right. The Congress and its allies have done this not for the first time, but again and again. Their mentality is neither in the interest of women nor in the interest of the country,” he added.

Amit Shah called it an “insult to Nari Shakti” and warned the opposition that it would not stop here but “travel far and wide”.

“The Opposition will have to confront ‘women’s rage’ not just in the 2029 Lok Sabha elections, but at every level, in every election, everywhere,” he said.

Constitutional amendment bills require a simple majority of the total members of the House of Representatives, but also a special majority of two-thirds of the total members present and voting. While the draft women’s quota law met the first criterion, it failed the second criterion.

The proposed legislation received 298 votes in favor and 230 votes against. This means that although the bill had a simple majority, it did not receive the two-thirds vote required to pass as a constitutional amendment. Of the 528 members who voted, the bill needed 352 votes to obtain a two-thirds majority.

As per the Constitution Amendment Bill, Lok Sabha seats were to be increased to a maximum of 850 from the current 543 to “give effect” to the Women’s Reservation Act before the 2029 parliamentary elections. Seats in state assemblies and union territories were also to be increased to accommodate the 33 per cent reservation for women.

Two other bills, including one to demarcate boundaries and increase the number of seats in the Lok Sabha, were not put to a vote after the first lost, with the Center saying they were “substantially linked” to legislation on women’s reservation.

In his speech during the debate, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi criticized the government over the delimitation bill and said it had “nothing to do with women empowerment” and was “an attempt to change the electoral map of India.” Nearly 130 members participated in the debate.