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Rahul Gandhi accuses govt of ‘unnecessarily linking’ women’s quota, delimitation bill; Rijiju hits back
Kiren Rijiju responded to Rahul's remarks, calling it a “visible change of heart about women” and challenged him to support the women’s quota bill.
Union parliamentary affairs minister Kiren Rijiju and Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi were locked in a war of words on Saturday over the women’s reservation bill, amid a stalemate over the Centre’s move to link it to the proposed delimitation exercise. The exchange began after Gandhi accused the Union government of “unnecessarily linking” the two bills, prompting Rijiju to call it a “visible change of heart about women” and challenged Gandhi to support the women’s quota bill. Gandhi hit back, questioning why the legislation was being unnecessarily linked to delimitation.
The development comes amid repeated attempts by Rijiju to reach out to Gandhi to break the ongoing deadlock in Parliament regarding the passage of the Constitution Amendment Bill linked to delimitation and the Women’s Reservation Act, 2023, which reserves one-third of seats for women in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies. On August 6, Rijiju had a telephonic conversation with Gandhi to seek support for the passage of the women’s reservation and delimitation bills, but the leader of opposition insisted on convening an all-party meeting on the proposed legislation, officials aware of the matter had said.
On Friday, discussing women’s safety and freedom of expression, Gandhi said in a video posted on X, “The energy of India’s women is trapped, is not allowed to express itself, is not allowed to imagine. For me, no country can be successful if the women in the country are not expressing themselves,” adding, “Our country is stunted and incomplete without the expression of our women.”
Gandhi argued that India cannot develop unless women are allowed to speak freely within their own homes, walk the streets comfortably, and question their families without fear.
Reacting to Gandhi’s remarks, the Union minister wrote on X, “There’s a visible change of heart in Shri Rahul Gandhi Ji about women. Now, I hope Congress Party will support the Women’s Reservation Bill unconditionally.”
Gandhi hit back, saying: “Mr Rijiju, who would know better than you, as the Minister of Parliamentary Affairs — that the Women’s Reservation Bill 2023 has already been passed unanimously, with the full support of the Congress. The question is, why has it still not been implemented even after three years, and why do you now want to unnecessarily link it to delimitation? Implement the 2023 law. Without any conditions.”
Rijiju responded to Gandhi’s remark, saying that the LoP should be well aware that the reservation for women -- provided under the Constitution (106th Amendment) Act, 2023 -- would only come into effect after a delimitation exercise based on census figures published after 2023. On the question of the delayed implementation of the bill, Rijiju said, “The exercise for publishing the census figures after the year 2026 is currently underway; however, this may take substantial time (due to caste based census) to be finally published. In view of this, it may result in considerable delay in the implementation of women reservation, at least not before the 2034 General Elections,” adding that for this reason the delimitation exercise should be conducted at the earliest to implement the reservation by 2029.
Referring to the recently formed Karnataka cabinet, Rijiju said on X, “There’s no woman in Karnataka DK Shivakumar’s Cabinet! This raises serious questions over Congress’s stand on the 33% Women quota.”
Reacting to the criticism, Karnataka chief minister D K Shivakumar said, “We are the ones who piloted (women’s reservation bill), we are the ones who passed (the bill). “The Congress party believes in it (giving priority to women). You know how many seats we gave (to women) in Parliament, I think you remember. So, in Karnataka, definitely we are sorting out that issue. Rijiju may not worry about the Congress Party,” the chief minister said.
The exchange revives a long-running dispute over the implementation of the Women’s Reservation Act, 2023, which reserves one-third of seats for women in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies. The BJP in April introduced the 131st Constitution Amendment Bill to the 2023 law in the Lok Sabha. The bill—seeking to raise the constitutional ceiling on Lok Sabha seats from 550 to 850 and permit delimitation or redrawing of constituency boundaries using the 2011 Census—was defeated in the House after failing to secure a two-thirds majority.
At the time, the bill got 298 votes in favour and 230 against. Since then, 20 out of 28 Trinamool Congress lawmakers have said they will support the National Democratic Alliance and six of nine Shiv Sena (UBT) lawmakers have joined the Shiv Sena. But the Opposition still has more than the 181 votes required to deny the bill passage. The Congress remains adamant that the women’s quota should be carved out of the current 543 Lok Sabha seats.
There has, however, been speculation that the government will reintroduce the bill in the ongoing Monsoon Session of Parliament, “provided it has the numbers to pass”.
