On Day 3 of the special session of Parliament on Wednesday, the Lok Sabha passed the Constitution (128th) Amendment Bill, 2023, that provides for one-third reservation to women in the Lower House and State Legislative Assemblies. The Rajya Sabha, meanwhile, adopted a resolution lauding the scientific community of the country or the success of the Chandrayaan-3 mission.
Lok Sabha
The House passed a Bill granting reservation to women on one-third of seats in the Lower House and State Assemblies with 454 votes in favour, amid the Opposition’s demands for immediate implementation and extension of similar benefits to Other Backward Classes (OBCs).
Proceedings began with Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal moving that the Bill be taken up for consideration. Opening the debate, Congress MP Sonia Gandhi said while the Congress supported the Bill, the caste census should be undertaken as soon as possible and provisions made for the representation of women from backward classes — a point highlighted by several other Opposition members as well. DMK’s Kanimozhi accused the BJP of politicking as she quoted Periyar’s words: “The pretence of men that they respect women and that they strive for their freedom is only a ruse to deceive them.” She along with other Opposition MPs, such as NCP MP Supriya Sule, Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra and Dr. Kakoli Ghosh Dastidaar highlighted that the Constitution specifies that reservation will happen after the delimitation exercise, the date of which remains unknown. The Opposition MPs asked for either a timeline or that the reservations be implemented for the 2024 general elections.
CPI(M) MP A.M. Ariff said the government is doing “high-voltage drama”, referring to the timing and procedure of the Bill’s introduction. The Shiromani Akali Dal leader Harsimrat Kaur Badal also questioned the rush to introduce the Bill in a special session. Several Opposition MPs also demanded similar provisions for the reservation of OBC women. MP Asaduddin Owais termed the Bill as anti-OBC, anti-Muslim and a “distraction” ahead of the 2024 elections. Pointing out the Bill’s Hindi nomenclature, RSP MP N.K. Premachandran said, “I can’t understand why a Constitutional Amendment Bill was already named in another language [before being discussed], and that too in Hindi.”
Politicians from the ruling party, in turn, critiqued previous governments’ attempts to pass the Bill and said women’s empowerment remains a priority for the ruling party. MP Nishikant Dubey, who was the first to speak from the BJP, accused the Congress of playing politics with the Bill. Other BJP MPs and ministers rallied around the Bill and praised the PM for bringing it. Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Anupriya Singh Patel highlighted that female participation is low in the Parliament while adding that the government would handle issues related to the census and delimitation exercise.
Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi, meanwhile, supported the Bill but said it was incomplete without an explicit quota for OBCs. He questioned the requirements of waiting for the Census and delimitation exercises. The MP also said the President, an Adivasi woman, should have been invited to the transfer of proceedings to the new Parliament building. In response, Home Minister Amit Shah said it was the BJP which gave an OBC Prime Minister. Mr. Shah further enumerated women-centric policies introduced by the BJP government, reiterating that women’s security and equality participation is a “life force” of the Modi government. The Home Minister said the Bill will be implemented soon after the Census and delimitation exercises are conducted after the 2024 elections, and appealed to the Parliament to pass the Bill unanimously.
After around eight hours of debate that saw the participation of 60 members, the Bill was put to vote. The House passed the Constitution (128th Amendment) Bill was passed, with 454 members voting in favour and two against.
Rajya Sabha
The Upper House began the day’s proceedings with a discussion on India’s “glorious space journey” marked by the successful soft landing of Chandryaan-3. While most members praised the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) for its achievements, some drew attention to the government’s dwindling funds for scientific research and the lack of efforts to solve the problems of the common people.
Leader of the House Piyush Goyal opened the debate as he congratulated scientists for making great strides at minimal cost. In response, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said there was a need to remind the House of all those who have made contributions in the space sector as he accused the government of attempting to “airbrush” the milestones. Mr. Ramesh said the Indian space programme should not be used as an “instrument of muscular nationalism”. His sentiments were echoed by several Opposition MPs.
BRS leader K.R. Suresh Reddy urged the government for AICTE and UGC recognition of geospatial sciences, a multidisciplinary subject, which is extensively used in processing data generated from space missions like Chandrayaan-3 and Aditya-L 1. Claiming that the government was not ready to promote scientific temper, Dr. V. Sivadasan pointed out that the number of basic science fellowships in India had come down.
Some MPs asked the BJP government to free science from bureaucracy and urged it not to cut the budget of the ISRO. In response, Union MoS (Space) Jitendra Singh said the Narendra Modi-led government had made space lucrative by opening doors to private industries.
Taking part in the discussion, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman praised women scientists for their contribution to the Chandrayaan-3 mission. She also took the opportunity to draw attention to the women’s reservation Bill, and said, “This is an instrument through which the political empowerment of women can be done, just as scientific empowerment has been happening in ISRO.”
MP Abir Biswas said it was “shameful” that the live feed did not show the moment of Chandrayaan-3’s landing and instead focussed on PM Modi’s visuals. MoS Jitendra Singh intervened, saying the visuals were shown in the live feed simultaneously alongside the PM’s visual on a split screen.
JMM leader Mahua Maji, meanwhile, raised the issue of non-payment of salaries for staffers of Heavy Engineering Corporation (HEC) that manufactured launch pads for Chandrayaan missions. Responding to the MP, Leader of the House Piyush Goyal said allegations must be substantiated. The MP informed the House that HEC staffers will be staging a protest at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi on Thursday.
The discussion concluded with the Upper House unanimously adopting a resolution congratulating the scientific community for the success of the Chandrayaan-3 mission and other recent successful space endeavours.
Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar thanked the members for sharing their perspectives and informed them that the House will on Thursday take up the Constitution (128th) Amendment Bill for consideration and passing.
(Compiled by Priyali Prakash, Saptaparno Ghosh, Saumya Kalia, Sruthi Darbhamulla, Suchitra Karthikeyan, and Sumeda)
