The claims of Congress Party about it being the prime mover of the Women’s Reservation Bill, is a plain lie… and this desperation only shows that they are rattled with the timing of the Bill.

The Union Cabinet on Monday cleared the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam (the Women’s Reservation Bill or W.R.B.) in a critical meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The women’s reservation bill seeks to reserve one-third (33%) of the total seats in state legislative Assemblies and Parliament for women.

Soon after Law Minister Arjun Meghwal tabled the Bill in the Lok Sabha, Congress General Secretary Jairam Ramesh lashed out at the Govt. saying, “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.”

On Tuesday, Congress’ high command, Sonia Gandhi, said the women’s reservation bill “is ours, apna hai,” while entering the new Parliament.

Jairam Ramesh also wrote on X, “It’s been a long-standing demand of the Congress party to implement women’s reservation. We welcome the reported decision of the Union Cabinet and await the details of the Bill. This could have very well been discussed in the all-party meeting before the Special Session, and consensus could have been built instead of operating under a veil of secrecy.“

Political parties have ideology-based agendas. But what matters most is the timing to push them. And no political leader has the sense of timing as astute as PM Narendra Modi displays.

The Congress party appears rattled. In one breath, they say that the Bill was their original idea; in the other, they suggest that it is only an ‘Electoral Jumla.’

It is funny to witness the shamelessness of the Congress Party to claim credit for the W.R.B., which is not only hypocritical but fake. It is essential here to expose Congress’s duplicity throughout the history of the Bill.

The political history of the Women’s Reservation Bill:

1971-1984: PM – Indira Gandhi:

Fifty-two years ago, in 1971, the Ministry of Education and Social Welfare, Government of India, appointed a Committee on the Status of Women in India (C.S.W.I.) to study the status of women in India. The Ministry was acting on a U.N. request for a status of women report for International Women’s’ Year in 1975.

The 1971 Committee had two tasks:

1. To examine the constitutional, legal, and administrative provisions that have a bearing on women’s social status, education, and employment.
2. To assess the impact of these provisions. The Committee concluded that there was an increase in the marginalisation of women in the economy and society.

The C.S.W.I. report “Towards Equality” found demographic trends of declining sex ratio, disparities in the life expectancy and death rates between men and women, and the difficulties involved in women’s access to literacy, education, and livelihood. It was believed that the Indian State had failed in its constitutional responsibility of gender equality.

The report also recommended reservations for women in constitutional bodies. PM Indira Gandhi had all the powers and could have easily implemented the recommendations, but she didn’t. None of the successive Congress governments ever bothered to act on those recommendations sincerely.

1984-1989: PM – Rajiv Gandhi:

In 1987, Rajiv Gandhi’s government constituted a 14-member committee led by Union Minister Margaret Alva to give recommendations to the PMO for improving the status of women.

The Committee presented the National Perspective Plan for Women 1988-2000 (N.P.P.W.) to the prime minister with 353 far-reaching recommendations. These include a uniform civil code, property rights for women, reservation of seats for women in elected bodies, banning sex-determination tests, and making harassment of wives for dowry a ground for seeking divorce.

Rajiv Gandhi sat on the N.P.P.W., and nothing was done to implement any recommendations. His Govt only focused on the Panchayati Raj amendment, that too only for electoral posturing and lip service. His Govt did introduce the Constitution Amendment Bill in September 1989 to provide 1/3rd reservation for women in RURAL & URBAN LOCAL BODIES, only. That too, and despite a brute majority, it failed to pass in the Rajya Sabha!

Remember, in the Shah Bano case, Rajiv’s Govt used all its electoral might in overturning the Court’s verdict and brought new legislation that took away the fundamental rights of Muslim women in India, only to appease the conservative clergies.

Those were the concerns and priorities of PM Rajiv Gandhi. It took three decades and a Narendra Modi that the social evil of Triple Talaq was finally confined to historical archives.

And the Congress frauds are suggesting that “addressing the injustice of under representation of women” was his dream child.

1990-1995: PM – P.V. Narsimha Rao

In 1992, P.V. Narasimha Rao’s Govt. reintroduced the Bill, which reserved one-third (33%) of all seats and chairperson posts for women in rural and urban local bodies (Panchayats and Nagarpalikas). Both houses passed the Bill and became the law of the nation. Had the Congress party wanted, it could have introduced the complete W.R.B. (effective for Parliament and Assemblies as well) in 1992. But it didn’t. It never intended to.

1996-97: PM – H.D. Deve Gowda and I. K. Gujral

In September 1996, then H.D. Deve Gowda-led United Front Government (the present I.N.D.I. Alliance) for the first time introduced the W.R.B. (The 81st Amendment Bill) in Lok Sabha for reservation of women in the Parliament. But the Bill lacked political will.

Deve Gowda’s political compulsions due to its coalition with Samajwadi Party and other Janata Dal leaders like Lalu Yadav and Sharad Yadav made the passage of the Bill difficult. It led to questions about the representation of O.B.C. women and whether a women’s reservation bill would benefit them equally. The Congress party, naturally, maintained radio silence over it.

The Bill naturally failed to get approval in Lok Sabha and was referred to a J.P.C. chaired by Geeta Mukherjee. The Mukherjee Committee presented its report in December 1996. However, the Bill lapsed with the dissolution of the Lok Sabha.

Under I K Gujral, who took over from Gowda in 1997, the government held two rounds of all-party meetings, and the Bill received further disapproval from O.B.C. leaders in May 1997 when it was taken up again.

The Indian Express also quoted Gujral as having confessed that every party except the Left was divided on the issue of women’s reservation. In 1997, the Bill again lapsed after Congress withdrew support from the Gujaral Govt.

The fact of the matter is that the Congress party didn’t let the United Front Govt pass it, and later it pulled the rug off both Deve Gowda and Gujaral Govt.

1998 – 2003: PM – Atal Bihari Vajpayee:

In 1998, the W.R.B. found a fresh place in Vajpayee’s first tenure, which first introduced the Bill in its complete form, post parliamentary panel consultation. Sharad Pawar offered to support the Bill in the media but later sabotaged it inside Parliament. The political drama over it reached its cliff as R.J.D. leader Lalu Prasad Yadav and S.P. supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav were adamant to oppose it.

The discussions heated up when Law Minister M Thambi Durai rose to introduce the Bill, and RJD MP Surendra Prakash Yadav snatched it from his hand and tore it. However, Mamata Banerjee was at the forefront in support of the Bill. For instance, she was often seen getting physical in December 1998 when she physically stopped S.P. leader Daroga Prasad Saroj from reaching the Speaker’s table by pulling him by the scruff of his collar. Jayalalithaa’s withdrawal of support from the Vajpayee government in 1999 led to its fall, and the proposed Bill again lost its traction.

In his second term, in December 2000, his Law Minister Ram Jethmalani introduced The Constitution (85th Amendment Bill) for women amid massive outrage and disruptions, especially by leaders of R.J.D. and S.P. The uproar in the Parliament didn’t let it happen.

It again listed the Bill in February 2001, but the same present-day I.N.D.I Alliance partners again displayed the opposition obstructionism.

But for Vajpayee, the issue did not die down. Once again, in 2003, the Vajpayee government called an all-party meeting in which the PM tried to garner consensus and support for the reservation but remained unsuccessful.

If anyone sincerely tried tooth and nail for introducing W.R.B., it was Vajpayee Govt. During its six-year tenure, it introduced Bill thrice. But the Vajpayee Government never had the majority to get it passed without building consensus. They always needed the support of Congress.

2004-2013: PM – Dr Manmohan Singh

The Manmohan Singh-led UPA-1 sat on the W.R.B. for four years. In another attempt at fake media imagery before the 2009 General Election, the Sonia-led Congress tabled it on May 6, 2008, in Rajya. But soon, the legislation was sent to the Standing Committee.

They were voted back to power. The Standing Committee presented its report in December 2009 and got approval from the Union Cabinet in February 2010. It is important to recall that no provisions were made for O.B.C. reservation despite recommendations by the Committee headed by Jayanti Natarajan and Bill remaining non-committal on O.B.C. reservation in R.S. and Legislative councils.

One must remember that this time, the B.J.P. was in opposition. Indeed, Congress didn’t have the majority in Rajya Sabha, but 2004-14 was the decade of absolute power held by Sonia Gandhi. Contrary to Congress’s calculations, B.J.P. showed its political consistency and commitment towards women’s empowerment and wholeheartedly supported Congress to get the W.R.B. passed in the Rajya Sabha with 186-1 votes on March 9, 2010.

Fearing a backlash from its then I.N.D.I Alliance partners, the Congress Party found itself in a dock. The Sonia-led Congress had to orchestrate the sabotage against its own Bill through its own M.P.s and allies. Naturally, the Bill was never considered by the Lok Sabha and was on freeze ever since during the entire tenure of the UPA-2.

Despite the public posturing that Sonia Gandhi was always in support of the Bill, the Congress party under her leadership, every time sabotaged the Bill. Sometimes, she would use her own M.P.s like Kurien, CK Jaffer Sharif, PM Sayeed, and P Shiv Shankar; other times, she used her allies like Lalu, Mulayam, and Sharad Yadav to play games against the Bill.

It is evident that the claims of Congress about it being the prime mover of the W.R.B. is not only untrue but a baseless lie. If at all, the W.R.B. became the victim of Congress’s conspiracy and political sabotage, and Sonia Gandhi was solely responsible for delaying it by more than two decades.

It was always and only B.J.P. that remained consistent on the Women’s Reservation Bill.

2014-2023: PM – Narendra Modi

Since 2014, the B.J.P. has mentioned the Women’s Reservation Bill in its election manifesto. But only in 2023 did Prime Minister Modi’s Cabinet clear the W.R.B. and tabled it in the Lok Sabha, and it is eventually becoming the first legislation to be passed in the new Parliament building. As I said before, it’s all about timing in politics.

The timing of this Bill being tabled in the New Parliament – just before the I.N.D.I. Alliance starts their discussions over seat-sharing, which is a political masterstroke.

The Congress party is rattled and, at the same time, was left with no other options but to support the Bill. They are aware that the Modi government’s women-friendly schemes have been an asset for B.J.P. with its solid women voter base, and they are likely to reap electoral benefits for this political reform, too.

Congress’s misery is not over yet. The history of the W.R.B. also highlights the fissures within the I.N.D.I. Alliance partners, whose prominent constituents like Lalu Yadav’s R.J.D. and Akhilesh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party have always fiercely opposed it, demanding a quota for women from O.B.C. within the 33 per cent quota. The differences over this Bill will further test the unity of the I.N.D.I. Alliance.

It is also fitting that the W.R.B. becomes a law under PM Modi, who always talked and worked towards “Women-led Development.”