‘Stop Saluting Us, Respect As Equals’: Women MPs Rule Lok Sabha Debate On Quota Bill

Opening the debate from Congress’s side, Sonia Gandhi supported the bill but questioned the delay while DMK’s Kanimozhi said that it is an “act of removing bias and injustice.” 

DMK's Kanimozhi, TMC's Kakoli Ghosh, and NCP's Supriya Sule speaking on women's reservation bill in Lok Sabha

Source : Sansad TV

The Lok Sabha on Wednesday witnessed a highly-charged session as women MPs debated over the bill granting 33 per cent reservation to women in Lok Sabha and state assemblies. The bill was the first one to be introduced in the new Parliament building’s Lok Sabha by Union Minister for Law and Justice, Arjun Ram Meghwal. Opening the debate from Congress’s side, Sonia Gandhi supported the bill but questioned the delay while DMK’s Kanimozhi said that it is an “act of removing bias and injustice.” 

Trinamool Congress’s Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar claimed that the reservation was already in force in West Bengal while Samajwadi Party MP Dimple Yadav stressed for quota for women from minority communities and extremely backward caste groups. 

However, the implementation of the legislation may still take some time as the reservation will come into effect only after a delimitation exercise is completed, which makes it unlikely to come into force for the upcoming 2024 Lok Sabha polls. 

Sonia Gandhi, Congress 

Extending her support to the bill, Sonia Gandhi said that it was the dream of her late husband and former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi to implement the reservation. She questioned the delay in passing of the bill and demanded a sub-quota for women from Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and Other Backward Class groups. 

"Immediate implementation of the women's reservation bill by removing all obstacles not only necessary but also possible," she said, adding, that "any delay in implementing women's reservation bill will be a gross injustice to Indian women."

"For the first time, my life partner Rajiv Gandhiji had brought in the constitutional amendment that decided the participation of women in local bodies, which was defeated in the Rajya Sabha by 7 votes. Later, the Congress government under the leadership of Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao got it passed. Today, the result is that we have 15 lakh elected women leaders through local bodies across the country. Rajiv Gandhiji's dream has so far been only half fulfilled. That will be accomplished with the passing of this bill," she said.

"Indian women have been waiting for their political responsibility for the last 13 years and now they are being asked to wait for a few more years. How many years – 2 years, 4 years, 6 years, 8 years? Is this treatment of Indian women appropriate," Gandhi asked.

Kanimozhi Karunanidhi, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam 

The DMK MP asserted that the legislation is not just a reservation bill but an "act of removing bias and injustice." She demanded to remove the ‘after delimitation’ clause from the bill. "How long should we wait to see this bill implemented? It can be easily implemented in the coming Parliamentary elections. This bill, you should understand, is not a reservation but an act of removing bias and injustice," she said.

"This bill is called the 'Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam'. Stop saluting us. We don't want to be saluted, we don't want to be put on pedestals, we do not want to be worshipped... we want to be respected as equals," she added. 

Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, Trinamool Congress 

In her fiery speech in support of the bill, Ghosh questioned the need to link delimitation with reservation dubbing it as a “sinister move”. She urged the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party to “prioritise transformation of mind set” and demanded action against Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh. “Golden girls of the country who brought medals for the country have been sexually harassed but the perpetrator sits here today, Brij Bhushan Singh who has not been brought to book,” she said. 

She also recounted the cases of gangrapes in Hathras and Unnao and the Asifa case.

Asserting that the reservation is already in force in West Bengal, the TMC MP claimed “economic non-empowerment” claiming that payment has not been released for NREGA women workers. 

Supriya Sule, Nationalist Congress Party 

NCP MP Supriya Sule called out the misogyny by one of the heads of BJP’s Maharashtra unit. “There was a Head of the BJP in Maharashtra. He told me personally on record on television - Supriya Sule ghar jaao, khana banao, desh koi aur chala lega. Hum log chalayenge.’ This is what the BJP's mindset is," she said. 

She questioned why the bill was introduced in the special session when the date for delimitation and census is not yet decided.