After six years, Sonia to write to PM again on Women's Reservation Bill

Six years ago, on 21 September 2017, Congress parliamentary party chairperson Sonia Gandhi wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, requesting him to use the majority that the Bharatiya Janata Party-led alliance has in the Lok Sabha to pass the women's reservation Bill. She will likely write to the Prime Minister again in the coming days, urging that his government put the Bill on its agenda for the upcoming five-day special session.

There is speculation that the government could bring the Bill during the session to reserve one-third of the seats in the Lok Sabha and legislative assemblies.

Addressing an event in Jaipur on Monday, vice president Jagdeep Dhankhar, also the Rajya Sabha chairman, said the day was not far when they will get their due representation in Parliament and legislative assemblies through an amendment to the Constitution.

On Tuesday, Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha leader Derek O'Brien said a third of his party's MPs were women. In contrast, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party had only 14 per cent women MPs. "There is a buzz in Lutyens' locality about Prime Minister Narendra Modi bringing the women's reservation Bill in a Parliament special session. The BJP has 14 per cent women MPs; All India Trinamool Congress already has over 30 per cent," O'Brien said. As for the special session, the Trinamool leader asked, "Where is the agenda for this session? This is not a parliamentary democracy where the agenda is kept secret," adding that the BJP "will do everything to disrupt the session," but the Opposition will remain positive.

Bharat Rashtra Samithi leader K Kavitha wrote to presidents of all 47 political parties on Tuesday, urging them to prioritise the passage of the Bill in the upcoming session. Kavitha, the daughter of Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, is currently a Telangana Legislative Council member. In April, the BJP's women cell chief, Vanathi Srinivasan, told Reuters that a third of the party's candidates in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls would be women.

The Rajya Sabha passed the Bill in 2010, but it couldn't clear the Lok Sabha hurdle where the UPA government failed to muster a majority. The Bill was first introduced in Parliament in 1996 during the tenure of the HD Deve Gowda-led United Front government.

At a meeting to discuss their strategy for the 'special session' on Tuesday evening, the Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha leaders of the Opposition alliance said that the government must make public the agenda for the session at the earliest. Responding to speculation that the government could bring the women's reservation Bill in the forthcoming session, most Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) bloc of parties agreed that they would support the Bill.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said the Modi government was convening a special session for the first time without spelling out the agenda. "No one from any opposition party has been consulted or informed. This is not the way to run a democracy. Every day, the Modi government plants a story in the media of a prospective 'agenda', thereby creating a smokescreen of diversion from real issues burdening the people," he said.

Kharge said the BJP wanted to keep issues like price rise, unemployment, the ethnic strife in Manipur, China's transgressions, Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) Reports and scams aside and cheat people. "INDIA parties discussed the way forward for the special session. We shall not be deterred from raising people's issues. We intend to keep our focus on these," he said.