NEW DELHI: Union Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal has said that the women’s quota law providing 33 per cent reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies “won’t have to wait for long”, as he indicated that it would be in place before the 2029 parliamentary polls.
In an exclusive interview with PTI on Thursday, the law minister also said that a lot of things will happen before the next Lok Sabha elections.
“Therefore, we will not let the Nari Shakti Vandan wait for long. The country also does not want the Nari Shakti Vandan (women’s reservation law) to wait for long,” he asserted.
Meghwal was asked about the future plan of the government as an amendment to the 2023 women’s quota law was defeated in the Lok Sabha in April.
The Constitution amendment bill sought to increase the number of Lok Sabha seats from the present 543 to a maximum of 850 before the next parliamentary polls in 2029.
Meghwal also clarified that the 2023 law was brought into force on April 16 as it was necessary because an Act can only be amended after it comes into force. He said “if the law is not in force, what will you amend?” To a poser on demands for equitable representation for all states, from north to south, in the Lok Sabha in the delimitation exercise, the Union minister said the government brought a delimitation bill along with a Constitution amendment so that the women’s quota law is implemented.
But the opposition gave its “fallacious reasoning” and the Constitution amendment bill could not be passed in the Lok Sabha on April 17 as the government lacked a two-thirds majority in the House.
The government, Meghwal said, tried to convince the opposition that delimitation was not possible in 2026 and there was a condition that to implement the quota law, census and then a delimitation exercise were must. On April 17, during an extended sitting of Parliament, the Constitution amendment bill to implement reservation for women in legislatures in 2029 and increase the number of seats in the Lok Sabha was defeated in the Lower House, with 298 members voting in support of the bill, and 230 MPs voting against it. Out of the 528 members who voted, the bill required 352 votes for a two-thirds majority.
According to the bill, Lok Sabha seats were to be increased to a maximum of 850 from the current 543 to “operationalise” the women’s reservation law before the 2029 Lok Sabha polls, following a delimitation exercise based on the 2011 Census.
Seats were also to be increased in states and Union Territory assemblies to accommodate 33 per cent reservation for women.
A day after the bill was defeated, Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the nation in which he warned the Congress and its allies that the women of India will “severely” punish them for “the sin of foeticide” after they “killed” the bill on women’s quota.
Modi also apologised to women, and said the government may have lost the vote but it will never give up its efforts to empower them.
“We may not have got the necessary 66 per cent votes for the passage of the bill yesterday, but we have got 100 per cent blessings of ‘Nari Shakti’,” Modi said. He also said the opposition parties “mercilessly crushed” the dreams of women by not allowing the bill to pass in Parliament despite the government’s best efforts.
