Congress dares PM Modi to implement women’s quota ‘tomorrow’ under existing framework

After Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s address to the nation on Saturday evening following the government’s setback in the Lok Sabha, the Congress demanded that a Bill to implement women’s reservation be brought “tomorrow” in Parliament within the existing Lok Sabha framework, without linking it to census or delimitation, and questioned both the timing and intent behind the government’s approach.

Also read: Opposition guilty of ‘foeticide’ of women’s quota, will pay the price: PM Modi in address to nation

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said Modi ji mentioned Congress 59 times and women barely few times. “That tells the country everything about his priorities. Women are not the BJP’s priority, the Congress is, because the Congress stands on the right side of history. The Congress has always supported women’s reservation. We were the party that passed the Women’s Reservation Bill in the Rajya Sabha in 2010 so that it would not lapse,” said Kharge.

He said that the BJP could not get that Bill passed in the Lok Sabha. “They brought another Bill in 2023 and the Congress Party supported that too. That Bill still exists. In fact, it was notified on April 16, while the Lok Sabha was discussing these delimitation Constitutional Amendment Bills. This was done by the same PM,” said Kharge.

The Congress president further said that the PM should implement 33% reservation for women in the existing 543 Lok Sabha seats under the 2023 law.

”Do not deny women their due representation now. Stop mixing up the delimitation Bills, i.e, the three Constitution Amendment Bills with the Women’s Reservation Bill. Stop lying to the nation that this was an amendment to the Women’s Reservation Bill — the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam. It was NOT. This was purely a delimitation Bill, brought in to create further division and redraw the electoral map in a manner that can only benefit the BJP,” he said.

Kharge said that the BJP-RSS divides the nation. “RSS supported the British against Indians and wrote mercy petitions to them. Every Indian knows that Modi ji’s political masters — the RSS — are against WOMEN. They believe in Manusmiti, which encourages DIVISION, and NOT the Constitution of India,” he said.

Reacting to the PM’s address to the nation, the senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said, “A sitting Prime Minister’s address to the nation has a sanctity to it. It is meant to be a non-partisan address intended to build national resolve and confidence. This pathetic partisan and polemical attack — a Distress Address rather than a National Address — would have been more appropriate in a Press Conference.”

He said the remarks were “more appropriate in a press conference” and alleged that the Prime Minister, “unhinged” by the “extraordinary legislative humiliation” in the Lok Sabha a day earlier, had avoided facing the media.

On the failed Constitution Amendment Bill, Ramesh said the apology offered by the Prime Minister did not address the core issue. “What he should have apologised for is his shameless, deceitful attempts to push through a devious delimitation proposal in the name of women,” he said. “His niyat is anything but saaf. It is poisonous.”

Ramesh pointed to the notification of the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, 2023, on April 16, 2026, nearly 30 months after it was passed unanimously in September 2023, and asked why there had been such a delay if the government was committed to women’s representation. He said references to “mahila samman” were inconsistent with this timeline.

He said what the government attempted in the Lok Sabha amounted to “a weakening of our democracy and our federalism”, adding that such a move had been anticipated when calls for “400 paar” were made ahead of the 2024 General Election. Invoking the legacy of Constitution-makers in this context, he said, “only induces a revulsion at his dishonesty”.

Countering claims made in the address, Ramesh said key initiatives cited by the Prime Minister had their origins in earlier Congress governments. He said banking expansion was rooted in policies under Indira Gandhi, Aadhaar was launched by Manmohan Singh on September 29, 2010, from Nandurbar in Maharashtra, and India’s digital transformation drew from the vision of Rajiv Gandhi.

He said that the GST framework was also initiated earlier, and recalled opposition to laws such as the National Food Security Act, 2013 and MGNREGA, which later proved critical during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Referring to the Prime Minister’s remarks that there was a “waqt ka intezaar” for women’s reservation, Ramesh said, “there is no need for a muhurat to give India’s women their due,” reiterating the demand to move a Bill immediately without preconditions.

”The Indian National Congress challenges the Prime Minister to move a bill in the Parliament tomorrow to implement women’s reservation within the existing set up of the Lok Sabha,” said Ramesh.

Former Rajasthan Chief Minister and senior Congress leader Ashok Gehlot said that the PM should dissolve the Lok Sabha and call for fresh elections on this very issue, seeking a renewed mandate from the people.

”Carrying out delimitation based on the 2011 Census instead of the 2026 caste census amounts to depriving OBC women of their rightful share. Only after the 2026 Census will the actual population of OBCs be known, enabling fair reservation for them. Making such a statement in the middle of elections in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu is a violation of the Model Code of Conduct. However, since the Election Commission has effectively become an election department of the BJP, no action is likely to be taken,” said Gehlot.