After the initial enthusiasm over the Women’s Reservation Bill, Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Tuesday raised the issue of a separate quota for women belonging to other backward classes (OBC).
Mr. Kharge’s stance is politically significant as some regional parties, who are part of the Indian National Developmental, Inclusive Alliance (INDIA), opposed the Women’s Reservation Bill on the ground that it lacked a quota within a quota.
Election jumla
The other objection was about the fact that reservation will be effective only after a census and delimitation exercise or the redrawing of boundaries of constituencies. In a statement, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh called it an “election jumla” and “huge betrayal of hopes of women”.
But hours before the Bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha, Congress’ Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi claimed ownership of the Bill saying: “its ours, apna hain”.
In his first speech in the new Rajya Sabha, Mr. Kharge chose to speak on the Women’s Reservation Bill and said the Upper House passed Women’s Reservation Bill in 2010. “But there were some hurdles and it did not go beyond Rajya Sabha,” adding that there were concerns about providing reservation for women from OBCs.
“Due to Constitutional reservation SC and ST (women) had one-third reservation. But if there is no Constitutional amendment to ensure one-third seats to women from backward classes, they will not get reservation. If you do not do it, it will be an injustice to women from backward classes,” he said adding that literacy levels among OBC and SC women were low and political parties often selected weak women for tickets. “I know how women from OBC-SC communities are selected by political parties,” he said.
BJP members objected. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said a “sweeping statement” by Mr. Kharge is not acceptable. “I speak on behalf of all our women. We all have been empowered by our party, by our Hon’ble Prime Minister. Hon’ble Rashrapati Droupadi Murmu ji is an empowered woman. Every (female) MP of my party is an empowered woman,” she said.
Mr. Kharge said women from OBC and SC communities do not get opportunities as Ms. Sitharaman gets. “Opposition leader cannot insult people like this. Who is Ms. Murmu?,” retorted Ms. Sitharaman adding that the government is asking for reservation for all women. Later, Mr. Kharge asked the Centre to take everyone along on issues, including women’s reservation and promotion of SC and ST officers in government.
‘Event management’
Later, in a post on X (formerly known as Twitter), Mr. Ramesh said, “In a season of election jumlas, this one is the biggest of them all! A huge betrayal of the hopes of crores of Indian women and girls”.
“As we had pointed out earlier, Modi government has not yet conducted the 2021 Decadal Census making India the only country in G20 that has failed to carry out the Census. Now it says that the reservation for women will come into effect only following the first decadal Census conducted after the Women’s Reservation Bill has become an Act. When will this Census take place?” he asked.
He said the Bill says reservation comes into effect only after the publication of the next Census and subsequent delimitation exercise. “Basically the Bill gets the headlines today with a very vague promise of its implementation date. This is nothing but EVM - Event Management,” Mr. Ramesh added.
In another post, he said if the the Prime Minister had any real intention to prioritise women empowerment, the Women’s Reservation Bill would have been implemented immediately without the ifs and buts and all other conditions.
