Women Reservation Bill passed in Lok Sabha

The much talked about Women Reservation Bill was on Wednesday passed in the Lok Sabha. 454 votes were polled in its favour while only two votes were polled against it. Now the Bill will be tabled in the Rajya Sabha and after its passage there it will be sent to the President for her assent.

A total of 60 members took part in the debate on the Bill including union home minister Amit Shah, former Congress president Sonia Gandhi. While Shah assured that the Bill would be equally applicable to the general, SC, ST categories, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said that it was incomplete without separate reservation for the OBC.

Shah said, "the process of census and delimitation would start after the next general elections and the participation of the women in the House would increase".

Rahul said, "there were only three secretaries among 90 who ran the country today" to which Shah replied that "the government rules the country and not the secretaries".

There was a ruckus as soon as Shah rose to speak on the Bill and said that he stood there to speak on the 128th amendment to the constitution.

Of the total BJP members, there are 85 who hail from OBC. 27 percent BJP MLAs are from OBC category. 40 percent BJP MLCs are from OBC.

Shah said "The Women's Reservation Bill is an era changing bill. Tomorrow's day will be written in golden letters in the history of Indian Parliament. Yesterday was the first time that the new House had 'Shri Ganesh', yesterday was 'Ganesh Chaturthi' and for the first time a bill pending for many years was passed. Of the seats reserved for SC-ST in the country, 33 percent will be reserved for women".

Before Shah, Rahul Gandhi said that I am in support of the Women's Reservation Bill, but it is incomplete. The President should have been present when MPs were being moved from the old parliament to the new one.

First, Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal told the House about the bill. After that, Sonia Gandhi spoke for 10 minutes on behalf of the Congress. During the discussion, TMC MP Mahua Moitra also demanded reservation for Muslim women. Union Minister Smriti Irani said, "I want to tell those who demand Muslim reservation that reservation on the basis of religion is prohibited in the Constitution. Don't get caught up in the way the opposition is trying to mislead", without naming Moitra,

Sonia Gandhi demanded reservation for OBC women of SP-NCP and said "The Congress demands that the bill be implemented immediately. The government should not stop it till delimitation. Earlier, by conducting a caste census, reservation should be arranged for SC-ST and OBC women in this bill. "

Sonia Gandhi said on the behalf of Congress "My husband Rajiv Gandhi was the first to bring a law to give reservation to women in local bodies, which fell by seven votes in the Rajya Sabha. Later, PV Narasimha Rao's government got it passed. As a result, there are 7 lakh elected women leaders in local bodies across the country. Rajiv's dream is only half fulfilled, with the passage of this bill, the dream will be fulfilled".

There is a drawback right now that according to this formula, if the assembly and Lok Sabha elections are held on time, then this time women's reservation will not be applicable. This may come into effect from the 2029 Lok Sabha elections or some assembly elections before that.

The proposal for reservation of women in Parliament has been pending for almost three decades. The issue was first raised in by the committee that assessed the status of women.

The SP and RJD had then opposed the bill and threatened to withdraw support to the then UPA government. After this, the bill was not introduced in the Lok Sabha. Since then, the Women's Reservation Bill was pending.