Parliament LIVE: Amit Shah, Rahul Gandhi to Speak on Women Reservation Bill in Lok Sabha Today

Rahul Gandhi supported the women reservation bill brought by the government.

On the Women’s Reservation Bill, Samajwadi Party MP Dimple Yadav said if the government’s intention is positive and if they think that women should get their rights and respect, then we demand that women of minority and backward class are also included in it.

“I have asked questions about when the census would happen and if the caste-based census would take place. I also asked when the delimitation process will take place because both are related to each other… The Women’s Reservation Bill is dependent on both of these,” he said.

On the Women’s Reservation Bill, boxing champion and former Rajya Sabha member MC Mary Kom said at least the BJP government has taken a positive step. “We are happy. Now, more women will come forward,” he said.

Implementing the Women’s Reservation Bill 2023, or the ‘Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam’, without a fresh census and delimitation exercise could expose the legislation to a legal challenge as there needs to be criteria for reserving a particular seat for women, top government sources have told News18.

Questions are being raised on why the bill is not being implemented immediately from the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and why the Narendra Modi government chose to bring in a new bill rather than pursue the bill passed by the Rajya Sabha in 2010. READ MORE

CPI MP Binoy Viswam welcomed the Women’s Reservation Bill. “We welcome that (Women’s Reservation) bill wholeheartedly, but at the same time, we know how calculative the BJP is. They were never for women’s rights or reservation, but only for electoral purposes they have come out with this bill,” he added.

On women’s reservation bill, Big Boss fame Shehnaaz Gill said there’s nothing more significant than treating men and women equally. “Being a woman, I came here to support women, and it was a great experience to witness all the discussions in the Parliament live. I think everyone should experience it once if they get a chance,” he said.

Home Minister Amit Shah is expected to speak around 5.30 PM or 6 PM in Parliament.

TMC Lok Sabha MP Shatrugan Sinha supported the Women’s Reservation Bill but said this is not a new bill but an old one being presented in a new form. “I support this bill, however, there are plenty of ifs and buts in this bill,” he said.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will speak on the women’s reservation bill in Parliament.

“The Congress had proposed women’s quota for not more than 15 years, but BJP guarantees reservation of seats for women. I express my gratitude towards PM Modi and Law Minister (Arjun Ram Meghwal) who didn’t allow this desire of the Congress to become a reality,” says Union minister Smriti Irani during debate on Women’s Reservation Bill in Lok Sabha.

Sonia Gandhi rarely speaks. But when she does, it’s usually on an issue which is close to her. As the Women’s Reservation Bill comes to a fruition, the Bill as well as Sonia Gandhi have had a long and rocky political journey.

During her speech, the angst was evident as Gandhi said: “Women have often seen themselves losing but in the end, they have been victorious.”

Destiny forced Sonia Gandhi’s hands when she joined active politics years after her husband’s death; when she felt “my party built up by my mother-in-law and husband was falling apart, I realised I couldn’t allow this to happen”. READ MORE

The Janata Dal (United) on Wednesday 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. Participating in a debate on the bill in Lok Sabha, JD(U) leader Rajiv Ranjan Singh called the measure a “jumla” of the Narendra Modi government aimed at winning the 2024 parliamentary elections.

“We support the bill. We want to empower all women. But this is nothing but a ‘jumla’. This is nothing but a panic reaction (of the ruling dispensation) to the formation of the opposition group INDIA. You are scared of 2024. That is why you have brought this bill,” he said. Union Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal introduced the Constitution amendment bill, Narishakti Vandan Adhiniyam-2023, which seeks to reserve 33 per cent seats in Lok Sabha and state assemblies for women, in Lok Sabha on Wednesday.

Samajwadi Party President Akhilesh Yadav on Wednesday accused the BJP government of bringing a “half-baked” women’s reservation bill and said that women of the country will give a befitting reply by voting against it in the coming elections.

In a post on X, the SP president also accused the central government of commencing the very first session in the new parliament building with a “grand lie.” “When the women reservation bill cannot be implemented without the census and delimitation, which will take many years, then why did the BJP government need to lie to women,” Yadav said.

“The BJP government is neither in favour of census nor caste survey, without which women reservation is not possible. This half-baked bill is a mockery of a serious issue like ‘women reservation’, women will respond to it by voting against BJP in the upcoming elections,” he said.

Union Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani speaks on Women’s Reservation Bill in Lok Sabha “When this bill was brought, some people said that it is “our bill”…UPA chairman Sonia Gandhi in an article of the proposed bill had said that “no seat shall be reserved for women for belonging to SC/ST in the third general elections…..But the bill brought by this government guarantees reservation to women till 15 years after the implementation of this bill…Previous governments failed to bring Women’s Reservation Bill.”

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“If we look from the perspective of the dignity of the Constitution, then (Goddess) Lakshmi has taken a Constitutional form through this (Women’s Reservation) Bill,” says Union minister Smriti Irani in Lok Sabha.

Union Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani speaks on Women’s Reservation Bill in Lok Sabha.

“The important question here is when will it (Women’s Reservation Bill) be implemented?” says Shiv Sena (UBT) Priyanka Chaturvedi on Women’s Reservation Bill.

“Today, it is both my pride and my shame that I stand here as a woman in India’s Parliament speaking on Women’s Reservation Bill. It is my pride that I belong to the All India Trinamool Congress that sends 37 per cent women among its members to Parliament,” says TMC MP Mahua Moitra in Lok Sabha.

Extending her party’s support to the women’s reservation bill, Congress parliamentary party chief Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday 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.

he NCP on Wednesday charged that the alleged deletion of words “socialist” and “secular” from the Preamble in the copies of the Constitution presented to MPs on the opening day of the new Parliament building showed the “biased mindset” of the ruling BJP. Earlier in the day, Congress MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury alleged that the words “secular” and “socialist” were missing from the Preamble in the copies of the Constitution given to lawmakers. However, Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal said the copies carried the original version of the Preamble of the Constitution and that these words were added later to it after constitutional amendments.

In a statement, Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party’s spokesperson Clyde Crasto said, “The BJP government says that this printed text was the original Preamble. If BJP does not want to respect the constitutional amendment of the Preamble and wants to follow the original, then why have they moved out from the original ‘Temple of Democracy’, the old Parliament building? Why did they not stay in the original one?” Removing the words ‘socialist’ and ‘secular’ is truly a display of BJPs biased mindset, he alleged.”The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) should stop fooling the people of India with their absurd replies because people know what they are trying to really achieve,” Crasto said.