New Delhi: Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Indian Parliament Wednesday September 20, 2023 passed the Constitution (128th Amendment) Bill, 2023, popularly known as Women’s Reservation Bill.
The Bill will now be introduced tomorrow i.e. Thursday September 21, 2023 in the Rajya Sabha.
Earlier, the Women’s Quota Bill passed the Lok Sabha test with 454 MPs voting in favour and 02 voting against it.
While the MPs who voted for the Women’s Reservation Bill are from the ruling as well as opposition parties including the BJP, Congress and others.
However, 02 MPs – Asaduddin Owaisi and Imtiaz Jaleel of All India Majlis e Ittehad ul Muslimeen (AIMIM) voted against the Bill.
AIMIM President and Member of Parliament from Hyderabad, Asaduddin Owaisi while participating in the debate of the Bill had demanded a quota for Muslims and OBCs within the 33% reservation for women in the proposed legislation.
"This bill will affect the representation of OBC women, and Muslim women. This is a woman deception bill, anti-OBC, anti-Muslim bill," Owaisi said in the Lok Sabha. "The population of Muslim women in the country is 7%. But their representation in this Lok Sabha is only 0.7%," he said.
"This bill will affect the representation of OBC women, and Muslim women. This is a woman deception bill, anti-OBC, anti-Muslim bill," Owaisi said in the Lok Sabha.
"The population of Muslim women in the country is 7%. But their representation in this Lok Sabha is only 0.7%," he said.
"The justification that is being given for the Bill is that more women will get elected to Parliament. If that is the justification, why is the same justification not being extended to the OBC and Muslim women whose representation in this august House is minimal?" Owaisi asked.
"(By this) The Narendra Modi government wants to increase representation of Savarna (upper caste) women. They don't want representation for OBC women and Muslim women. There have been 690 women MPs elected to Lok Sabha, and only 25 of them have come from the Muslim community”, he said. "I hear that reservations cannot be given on religious grounds. What is the 1950 presidential order? You are deceiving Muslim women by denying them quotas within this reservation," he said.
"(By this) The Narendra Modi government wants to increase representation of Savarna (upper caste) women. They don't want representation for OBC women and Muslim women. There have been 690 women MPs elected to Lok Sabha, and only 25 of them have come from the Muslim community”, he said.
"I hear that reservations cannot be given on religious grounds. What is the 1950 presidential order? You are deceiving Muslim women by denying them quotas within this reservation," he said.
Talking to the media after the vote on Women’s Quota Bill in the Lok Sabha Owaisi reiterated his stand and said that he and his party colleague Imtiaz Jalil had voted against the Bill.
"We voted against the Bill so that they would know that there were two MPs who were fighting for the inclusion of the OBC and the Muslim women”, Owaisi said.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on the demands that the proposed legislation should include a quota for the OBCs said Parliamentarians are currently elected in three categories – General, Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe – and the Bill has incorporated a quota for each of them.
A total of 131 seats (24.03%) are already reserved for representatives of Scheduled Castes (84) and Scheduled Tribes (47).
After passing the Lok Sabha, the Bill will now be tabled in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday where, in all likelihood, will pass through. Its implementation however will be only in 2029 elections.
Explaining the reason behind the delay, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said the new government formed after 2024 General Elections will conduct the nationwide census.
Census will be followed by the delimitation exercise by a delimitation commission headed by a retired Supreme Court judge, and will comprise a representative of the Election Commission and a member each from the political parties.
The Congress party however said delaying reservation to women will be “gross injustice to them”.
“The Congress supports the Bill. But, it is our demand that the Bill should be implemented immediately”, she said. “Along with that, provision should be made for the reservation of SC, ST, OBC women after conducting a caste census,” she added.
“The Congress supports the Bill. But, it is our demand that the Bill should be implemented immediately”, she said.
“Along with that, provision should be made for the reservation of SC, ST, OBC women after conducting a caste census,” she added.
“Any delay in bringing the reservation into effect would be “gross injustice” to Indian women”, the Chairperson of the Congress Parliamentary Party, Sonia Gandhi, said while initiating the debate on the bill from the opposition’s side.
Demanding that the bill be implemented immediately, NCP MP Supriya Sule wondered “why this special session is called when there is no implementation”.
“Let’s make a constitutional amendment to show our commitment to SC/ST and OBC. Unless we have delimitation and census we can’t implement the Bill. So, what is this special session? The date of next census is indeterminate, the date of next delimitation is indeterminate so how are we going to get it?” Sule asked. “This is nothing but ‘A post-dated cheque drawn on a failing bank’”, Supriya Sula wrapped her speech quoting Mahatma Gandhi’s famous line about Cripps Mission.
“Let’s make a constitutional amendment to show our commitment to SC/ST and OBC. Unless we have delimitation and census we can’t implement the Bill. So, what is this special session? The date of next census is indeterminate, the date of next delimitation is indeterminate so how are we going to get it?” Sule asked.
“This is nothing but ‘A post-dated cheque drawn on a failing bank’”, Supriya Sula wrapped her speech quoting Mahatma Gandhi’s famous line about Cripps Mission.
While participating in the debate TMC MP Mahua Moitra termed the women’s reservation bill a “sham”, and said it should be renamed as “women’s reservation rescheduling bill”.
She asserted that what was needed was action not “the placebo of legislatively-mandated procrastination”.
Out of the total 82 woman MPs in the current Lok Sabha which is about 15% of the total, 27 female members of different parties participated in the debate.
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