Designed to push the ball forward: Rahul Gandhi on women’s bill’ seeks OBC quota, caste census

Aditi Tandon

New Delhi, September 20

Congress MP Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday said the Women’s Reservation Bill was incomplete as it did not provide for reservation to women from the backward segment, which constituted the largest chunk of India’s population.

“I would have liked to see OBC reservation included in this Bill. A large chunk of India’s population should have access to this reservation and that is missing in this bill. Also two things seem strange to me. One is the idea that you require a new Census to implement this Bill, two that you require a new delimitation to implement the bill. This can be implemented today by giving 33% seats to women. So one wonders whether this bill has been designed to push the ball forward,” Rahul said supporting the Bill in Lok Sabha today but with riders.

He demanded a caste census and OBC quota flashing a list of 90 secretaries to the government of India, where he said just three were from OBC.

“They control just 5% of the national budget. This needs to change,” Rahul said, amid ruckus by BJP MPs whom he told “do not fear.”

Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla asked Rahul not to use terms like “daro mat” in Lok Sabha where, he said, “all MPs are equal.”

Rahul also questioned the absence of President Droupadi Murmu from the transition process to the new Parliament.

“My friends always want to take the attention away from issues. This one is a quite a nice building, nice peacocks, nice peacock feathers all over. But I would have liked to see the President in this process. She is a woman, she represents a tribal community. It would have been befitting to have her visible in the transfer,” Rahul said.

The Congress MP recalled the one third reservation for women in panchayats and local bodies under his father and late PM Rajiv Gandhi saying “that was a big step.”

He said, “There is no need for delimitation or a census. Give women 33 % reservation today.”