Member of Parliament from the Trinamool Congress (TMC), Mahua Moitra, has strongly criticised the government’s handling of the Women’s Reservation Bill, suggesting it may not become a reality until 2029 or later. She referred to it as the “Women’s Reservation Rescheduling Bill” during her impassioned speech.
“When this government wanted to protect cows…you did not wait to count the number of cows,” Moitra said in a scathing attack on the BJP. “Forget 2024, this may not even be possible in 2029,” she asserted accusing the Modi government of delaying the bill.
“What this government has brought here is not a Women’s Reservation Bill, it is a Women’s Reservation Rescheduling Bill. Its agenda is delay, its agenda is not reservation. The constant dithering on when there will be next Census and when there will be delimitation will mean that the reservation is indefinitely delayed. This is not a historic Bill as it is being touted. It is a sham. The question of women’s reservation requires action, not the legislatively mandated procrastination,” Moitra emphasised while participating in the debate on the Nari Shakti Vandan Bill.
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Moitra questioned the government’s priorities, comparing the swift action taken to protect cows to the apparent delay in implementing women’s reservations. She urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to demonstrate that “Modi hai to mumkin hai” (If Modi is there, it is possible) by immediately implementing the reservation based on the current voter list.
The Women’s Reservation Bill aims to reserve 33 percent of seats for women in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies but is contingent on the delimitation exercise following the next census. Moitra pointed out that the uncertainty surrounding the census date has cast doubt on when this reservation will come into effect.
Moitra further showed her support for the bill, mentioning that the original idea came from Mamata Banerjee. “We do not need to go on record to say that we support the bill. We already send 37 percent of MPs as women. It is you who have to go on record to show your support. You have to show that you can send 33 percent of women to Lok Sabha,” she said.
Highlighting that the TMC already sends 37 percent of women MPs to Parliament, Moitra challenged other parties to show their support for the bill. She stressed the need for action, not just legislative procrastination.
Moitra also drew attention to the underrepresentation of women from minority communities in Parliament, emphasising that Muslims and Dalits have historically been marginalised in this regard.
“Within women Parliamentarians, Muslims and Dalits have been consistently under-represented. From 1952 to 2004, only eight Muslim women were elected to Parliament, many of whom served multiple terms. In today’s Lok Sabha, there are only two Muslim women members, and both are from West Bengal and the TMC. The numbers for male and female turnout in the last general elections were nearly the same. But women’s candidature remained an abysmal 9 percent, up from only 7 percent in 2004,” Moitra said.
In her address, Moitra recalled India’s history, where the Constituent Assembly included 15 female members who rejected the idea of special women’s reservation in favour of merit-based appointments. She expressed both pride and shame that, 75 years later, she was addressing the Women’s Reservation Bill in India’s Parliament.