New Delhi, Sep 20: The Lok Sabha on Wednesday passed a bill granting reservation to women on one-third seats in Lok Sabha and state assemblies with near unanimity amid demands from the opposition to extend similar benefits to Other Backward Classes and immediate implementation of the measure before the elections next year.
After a spirited eight-hour debate in which 60 members participated, the Lok Sabha passed the Constitution (128th Amendment) Bill, with 454 members voting in favour and two against it.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi was present during the voting on the bill.
The bill was passed as per the provisions of Article 368 (2) of the Constitution relating to the passage of constitutional amendment bills which requires support of the majority of the total membership of the House and a majority of not less than two-thirds of the members present and voting.
A few amendments moved by the government relating to the numbering of the Constitution amendment bill were also cleared by the House. When the proposed legislation goes to Rajya Sabha for its consideration, it will be called the Constitution (106th Amendment) Bill, officials said.
Setting the tone of the debate, former Congress president Sonia Gandhi made a strong pitch for bringing OBC women in the ambit of the proposed law and asserting that any delay in bringing the reservation into effect would be “gross injustice” to women.
Intervening in the debate, Home Minister Amit Shah brushed aside apprehensions of a delay in the implementation of the proposed law and asserted that the next government will conduct a census and delimitation exercise soon after the elections, setting in motion the process to make women’s reservation a reality.
Shah indicated that women’s reservation will become a reality after 2029.
The home minister pushed back against the opposition’s criticism for not including an OBC sub-quota and asserted that the BJP has given more representation to the community than those claiming to speak for them. Nearly 29 per cent or 85 BJP MPs, 29 Union ministers, and 365 of its 1,358 MLAs, which is over 27 per cent, are from the OBC category, Shah said. He said over 40 per cent of its MLCs also belong to the Other Backward Classes (OBCs). The debate also saw rival political parties claim credit for women’s reservation, with Gandhi saying that the bill was a dream of her late husband and former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, who made attempts to grant reservation to women in local bodies in 1989 but failed, and BJP members asserting that former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee brought the bill twice only to be met with unruly scenes in the House. (PTI)
