The Congress on Friday indicated that it may support amendments to the Women’s Reservation Bill even though it said holding a session of Parliament before the end of the current House election cycle would clearly violate the Model Code of Conduct.
Asserting that the government’s push for a quick delimitation process would have “serious consequences”, Congress general secretary in charge of communications Jairam Ramesh said the party did not want any disruption to the current margin and relative strength in the Lok Sabha. Ramesh, Congress leader in the Rajya Sabha, added that he learned that the government would also introduce a bill to set up a delimitation commission.
He added: “Our demand was to implement the Women’s Reservation Bill starting in 2029 when the bill was approved in 2023… While the party welcomes the amendment, at the same time the sky would not have fallen if the government had waited another 15 days, consulted with all opposition parties, and held the session after that.”
“There’s no question of opposing that.”
The budget session was not postponed or ended indefinitely. The two chambers are scheduled to meet on April 16, most likely, to make amendments to the draft law on women’s reservation. The government wants to delink the bill from the ongoing census and float the law from the 2029 Lok Sabha polls.
Tamil Nadu goes to the polls on April 23. West Bengal goes to the polls on April 23-29.
“The purpose is to take advantage of the Tamil Nadu elections in West Bengal,” Ramesh said, noting that the session could have been called after the polls on April 29.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge will call a meeting next week of Congress legislators and opposition leaders to chalk out a strategy, Ramesh said.
“We will take a joint strategy. And remember, all opposition parties are united on these issues.” Trinamool Congress [which didn’t sign Kharge’s letter to parliamentary affairs minister Kiren Rijiju to call an all party meeting] “They may not be with us in message but they are united in spirit,” Ramesh said.
He added: “Our demand was to implement the draft women’s reservation law starting in 2029, as the draft law was approved in 2023.”
Ramesh, Congress leader in the Rajya Sabha, said he learned that the government would also introduce a bill to set up a delimitation commission.
Congress said the proposed delimitation could be based on a 50% proportional increase in the number of seats in all states. This, according to Ramesh, is unacceptable because the southern, eastern and northeastern states will be at a disadvantage.
The government is working to present a draft law that separates the reservation of seats for women in legislative councils from the population census and the so-called border demarcation process. The move could increase the number of seats in Lok Sabha to 816. Of these, 273 could be allocated to women, and the proportional representation of each state may remain the same.
Several opposition parties have proposed immediate implementation of the Women’s Reservation Act when it is passed in 2023.
“Karji had at that time demanded that it be done immediately, as you don’t need to do a census or demarcation, but they said demarcation and census are necessary. They remained asleep for 30 months,” Ramesh said.
Derek O’Brien, a leader of the TMC’s Rajya Sabha floor, said: “We have a system in Trinamool. We have an All India Action Committee, headed by our president Mamata Banerjee. Systems are put in place before policy decisions are taken. Modi Shah thinks Parliament is the hall of Gujarat! Where is the draft of the proposed legislation?”
