Kharge seeks meet as govt moves to delink women's quota from census

New Delhi: The leader of the opposition in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge wrote to parliamentary affairs minister Kiran Rijiju, seeking an all-party meeting ahead of the government's plan to bring a bill next week proposing amendment to the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam (Women's Reservation Act) to delink the implementation of the women's quota from the completion of census and delimitation exercise so that the quota execution could be advanced, perhaps to next year.

Significantly, assembly elections in some states including Uttar Pradesh are due in 2027.

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Kharge wrote the letter after an informal communication from the minister seeking opposition support for the move, in order to make the consultation process wider and collective. The government side is known to have reached out to representatives of a few other opposition parties as well in this regard. Opposition parties do not want to be seen as totally opposing the proposed amendment given the political sensitivity over the provision to provide 33% reservation to women in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies.

Kharge, while underscoring that the women's reservation bill was unanimously passed, when the Modi government brought the long-delayed legislation in Parliament, wrote, "The Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam was passed unanimously by Parliament in September 2023. Thirty months later, the government is, in your own words, 'seeking an opportunity to interact with me and senior members of my party to deliberate upon the modalities and roadmap for implementation of this landmark constitutional amendment'."

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Pointing out that he and his colleague Jairam Ramesh had already suggested during informal talks with Rijiju to convene an all-party meeting, Kharge further said, "I hope that such an all-party meeting, chaired by the prime minister, is convened at the earliest. It would be in keeping with the best traditions of parliamentary democracy."