Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address the nation at 8.30 pm on Saturday, a day after a bill to implement women’s reservation was rejected in the Lok Sabha legislatures.
“The Prime Minister will address the nation at 8.30 pm (April 18, Saturday),” an official said.
Modi is expected to address the issue of implementing the women’s quota and the developments witnessed in Parliament, as the opposition parties voted on Friday against the draft Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill.
Under the bill, Lok Sabha seats were to be increased to 816 from the current 543 to “activate” the women’s reservation law before the 2029 parliamentary elections, after the delimitation exercise based on the 2011 census. The government said seats in state assemblies and UT assemblies need to be increased to accommodate the 33 per cent reservation for women.
Passing the crucial bill required a two-thirds majority, but the ruling coalition led by the Bharatiya Janata Party was unable to muster enough numbers. During the vote on the bill in Lok Sabha on Friday evening, 298 members voted in favor of it, while 230 MPs voted against it.
Of the 528 members who voted, the bill needed 352 votes for a two-thirds majority.
Why did the opposition vote against the bill?
While Union Home Minister Amit Shah accused the opposition of obstructing women’s reservation, opposition leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, asserted that they support the quota but are opposed to linking it to border demarcation.
“Yesterday in Parliament they came up with a new bill. They said it was a women’s bill, but it was actually passed in 2023. The hidden agenda behind this bill was demarcation. The idea was to reduce Tamil Nadu’s representation in the Parliament of India and weaken the southern and smaller states. We defeated this bill in Parliament yesterday,” Gandhi said during an election rally in Tamil Nadu’s Punneri on Saturday.
Explaining his broader political stance, he said India is a “union of states” where each state should have equal space. “Every nation must have a voice in the union and must be free to express its language and protect its traditions.”
