New Delhi: Bill passed; see you after 2029 says Amit Shah

New Delhi : Lok Sabha passed Women's Reservation Bill granting 33 per cent seats to women in Lok Sabha and state legislative assemblies. As many as 454 MPs voted in favour of the bill, while 2 MPs vote against the bill. Earlier, Home Minister Amit Shah appealed to the opposition for the unanimous passage of the bill and said shortcomings, if any, can be rectified at a later date.

Brushing aside apprehensions of a delay in the bill's implementation, Shah said the next government will conduct the census and the delimitation exercise immediately after the elections and set in motion the process to make reservation for women in Lok Sabha and state assemblies a reality. Intervening in the debate on the Constitution (128th Amendment) Bill, Shah indicated that women's reservation will become a reality after 2029.

Extending her party's support to the women's reservation bill, Congress parliamentary party chief Sonia Gandhi demanded that the quota be implemented immediately and provision be made for reservation for OBC women. Initiating the debate on the bill from the opposition's side, Gandhi said in the Lok Sabha that any delay in bringing the reservation into effect would be "gross injustice" to Indian women. "Rajiv Gandhi's dream is only half fulfilled. It will be fulfilled with the passage of this bill. The Congress supports this bill. We will be happy with the passage of this bill but we also have a concern. I want to ask a question. For the last 13 years, Indian women have been waiting for their political responsibilities, and now they are being asked to wait for a few more years -- two years, four years, six years, eight years," the former Congress chief said.

TMC member Kakoli Ghosh-Dastidar invoked famous song 'catch me if you can' dedicated to legendary boxer Muhammad Ali to dare the BJP to match the 40 per cent reservation for women already implemented by her party for Lok Sabha elections. TMC MP Mahua Moitra said she calls it both an honour and shame to speak about the bill, 75 years after Independence. She highlighted that the number for male and female turnout were nearly the same in the last general elections, i.e. 66.7 per cent and 66.8 per cent respectively, but women’s candidature was at an abysmal 9 per cent, up from 7 per cent in 2004.

Moitra called the legislation a women’s reservation rescheduling bill, and said that it should be renamed as such, saying that "forget 2024, this bill will not come to light even by 2029".

Union Minister Smriti Irani slammed the opposition over its demand for an immediate implementation of quota under women's reservation bill, asking it whether it wished to follow the constitutional process.

Opposition parties NCP and SP demanded reservation for OBCs in the women's reservation bill and questioned the reason for calling a special session when the bill cannot be implemented before census and delimitation. The Congress hit out at the government over the women's reservation bill brought by it, saying the only appropriate description of what Prime Minister Narendra Modi has done with the matter is "it is a post-dated cheque drawn on a failing bank".

President Droupadi Murmu said it will be the most "transformative revolution in our times" for gender justice. The Janata Dal (United) alleged that the women's reservation bill was a panic reaction of the BJP-led central government after the formation of the opposition group INDIA.

The UN Women has expressed hope that political parties across the board will come together to ensure timely implementation of the women's reservation bill given that gender quotas in policies and politics is crucial to advancing gender equality and women's rights. The women's reservation bill is not about reservation but an "act of removing bias and injustice," DMK leader Kanimozhi said.