The defeat of the Bill linked to women’s reservation in the Lok Sabha on 17 April is not merely a legislative setback for the government. It is a revealing episode in India’s political theatre, one that exposes how a widely supported democratic reform can be refurbished to serve narrow political ends of the ruling party. Far from being a genuine attempt to enhance women’s representation in Parliament and state assemblies, the Bill’s failure suggests that the Opposition stood firm in its stance that this has nothing to do with women’s rights for more representation but is directly linked to delimitation and increase of Lok Sabha seats.
The Union government’s decision to hurriedly operationalise the 2023 Women’s Reservation framework on the night before the Lok Sabha voting appears that the government understood late that it will come a cropper the next day. The ruse of Women’s Reservation, obviously, did not work. By convening a special Parliamentary session despite lacking the numbers required for a Constitutional Amendment, the government effectively staged a political spectacle. The Opposition’s resistance was neither sudden nor incomprehensible. Most parties had consistently opposed the linking of women’s reservation to the delimitation of constituencies. According to the 2023 Women’s Reservation Bill, the idea was to put it into action after the currently undergoing 2026 Census results are published. It may be noted that the Women’s Reservation Bill was passed in 2023, and the Opposition parties had supported it then. So the question can arise as to why the Union government brought this Bill to a vote in a special brief session of Parliament. It can be surmised that the government probably calculated that with the pressure of state elections, the Opposition would not dare mess with a Bill that has been projected as being pro-women. The unnecessary confidence could have been a complete misreading of current public sentiments across the length and breadth of India. Apart from this outcome due to the Opposition holding steady and united this time, the defeat of the Bill demonstrated very clearly that the present Union government does not possess enough strength in numbers in Parliament. This event has greatly damaged the image of invincibility that had been carefully crafted over the past decade and more. On the other hand, the Opposition has also gained massive confidence on its abilities. When united, they can easily thwart most major anti-people moves by the government. Of course, we must remember that this was a Constitution Amendment Bill which requires 2/3rd majority to be passed. With the current NDA numbers, they can only pass regular bills.
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Yet, the defeat does not seem to have been expected and must have hurt those who were overconfident in the nomenclature having Women in it.
