New Delhi: Congress leader and leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Friday said the Opposition defeated the government’s attempt to tweak the women’s quota law which he said was an attack on the Constitution.
“The bill was not aimed at providing women reservation, but an attempt to change India’s electoral structure”, he said. Talking to reporters after the Constitution amendment bill failed to secure two-third majority in the Lok Sabha, Gandhi said if Prime Minister Narendra Modi is serious about providing women reservation in Parliament, he should bring the 2023 law and the Opposition would extend its support outrightly.
“As I have said, it was an attack on the Constitution and we defeated that,” he said. “We clearly said that this was not a women’s bill, but an attempt to change India’s electoral structure which we have stopped,” he added.
In a direct message to the Prime Minister, Gandhi said if he wants the women’s bill to be implemented, he should bring the 2023 law and implement it from today. “The entire Opposition will support you and ensure women’s reservation from today itself,” he said.
Later, in a post on X in Hindi, Gandhi said, “The amendment bill has fallen. They used an unconstitutional trick in the name of women to break the Constitution. India has seen it. INDIA has stopped it. Hail the Constitution.”
Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said the manner in which the government sought to link the bill to delimitation can never be accepted.
“The way the Modi government presented women’s reservation made its passage impossible. The BJP government linked women’s reservation to delimitation and the old census, in which the OBC category was not included.
Asked about the BJP leaders accusing the Congress of being anti-women, Priyanka said, “Those who did nothing in Hathras, those who did nothing in Unnao, those who did nothing in Manipur and those who did nothing for women wrestlers are now talking about anti-woman mindset?”
While 298 members voted in support of the bill, 230 MPs voted against it. Out of 528 members who voted, the bill required 352 votes for a two-third majority.
The bill proposed to increase the number of Lok Sabha seats to a maximum of 850 from the current 543 to “operationalise” the women’s reservation law before the 2029 parliamentary polls, following a delimitation exercise based on the 2011 Census. Seats were also to be increased in states and UT assemblies to accommodate 33 per cent reservation for women.
