September 20, 2023
Mahua Moitra’s speech on The Constitution (128th) Amendment Bill, 2023 (Women’s Reservation Bill) in the Lok Sabha
Hon. Chairperson, Sir, I rise to lay on behalf of my Party, All India Trinamool Congress, to speak on women’s reservation, the Nari Shakti Vandan Bill. At the very outset, let us remind ourselves that this is India, a country where poet, Kaifi Azmi, before independence, in 1940, eighty-two years ago, wrote in his poem, ‘Aurat’: “उठ मेरी जान, मेरेसार् ही चलना हैिझुे, जन्नि इक और ह, ैजो मदणकेपहलूमेंनहीं, उसकी आज़ाद रतवश पर भी मचलना हैिझु,े बन के िूफान छलकना है, उबरना हैिझुे, उठ मेरी जान, मेरेसार् ही चलना हैिझुे।” This is in India where Tagore in 1928 wrote in his poem, Shobola – Nari k apon bhagyo joy koribar, keno nahi dibey odhikar, Hey Bidhata. Oh Lord! Why will you not give women the right to determine their own destiny? This is in India where in 1946, when the Constituent Assembly was elected, fifteen seats went to women who had to draft the Constitution. Both the United States and United Kingdom saw lengthy suffragette movements before women were granted the right to vote. India’s founders in April, 1947 agreed to the principle of Universal Adult Suffrage, giving simultaneously the right to vote to women and men. There was never any question of denying women the right to vote while giving it to men. All fifteen members of the Constituent Assembly who were women, rejected the demand for any special women’s reservation on July 18, 1947. Member activist Renuka Ray noted that ‘Vijayalakshmi Pandit has not been selected because she is a woman, nor was sex made a bar to the appointment. It is her proven worth that has been responsible for her appointment to the high office of Ambassador to a land. The demand for a special reservation is an insult to our intelligence and capacity.’ So sure, were our founding mothers that this great land would not deny her women their rightful place based on merit. But alas, it is seventy-five years later and today, it is both my pride and my shame that I stand here as a woman in India’s Parliament speaking on a women’s reservation Bill. It is my pride that I belong to the All India Trinamool Congress, a Party that sends thirty-seven per cent women among its Members to Parliament. It is my chagrin that I belong to Lok Sabha, the House of the People, that on aggregate has only 15 per cent of its members as women, far below the global average of 26.5 per cent and also below the Asian regional average of 21 per cent. As this Government pats itself on its back for its rankings on various global tables, let it also hang its head in disgrace that this same India ranks 140 out of 196 countries in the Inter-Parliamentary Union League’s Table on women’s representation. Within women Parliamentarians, Muslims and Dalits have been consistently underrepresented. From 1952 to 2004, only eight Muslim women were elected to India’s Parliament, Lok Sabha, many of who served multiple terms. In today’s Lok Sabha, the 17th Lok Sabha, there are only two Muslim women Members, both from West Bengal and both from the All India Trinamool Congress. The numbers for male and female turnout in the last General Election were nearly the same. It was 66.7 per cent and 66.8 per cent respectively. But women’s candidature — the number of women who are being put up for elections, which is the first step towards getting elected to Lok Sabha — remained at an abysmal nine per cent up from only seven per cent in 2004. As we started our new innings yesterday in this newly constructed Temple of Democracy, our hon. Prime Minister grandly proclaimed that it seemed that he was ordained to perform many important tasks for this country including this one. And then, with much fanfare, this Government introduced this Bill claiming credit as usual for a groundbreaking move. But wait! What does this Bill really say? Article 334 of the Bill says that the reservation shall come into effect only after delimitation has been undertaken. Delimitation will only be undertaken after the relevant figures for the next census have been published. Rotation of seats for women shall take effect after each subsequent exercise of delimitation. So, what does this mean? In true BJP’s Goebblesian doublespeak style, it means we do not know if and actually when we will have 33 per cent of women sitting in the Lok Sabha. It is because number one, the date of next census is entirely indeterminate and number two, the date of the next delimitation exercise is, therefore, doubly indeterminate. It is also controversial, as my esteemed colleague Kanimozhi from the DMK said. She said according to the data, we will have an increase of zero per cent in the number of seats. From Kerala, it is 26 per cent but a whopping 79 per cent increase will be there both in Madhya Pradesh and in Uttar Pradesh. So, women’s reservation is dependent on two totally indeterminate dates. Can there be a greater jumla? Forget 2024, this may not even be possible in 2029. We are being asked time and again if we support the Women’s Reservation Bill. िर्ृ मूल काूंग्रेस इस तबल को सपोटणकरगे ी या नहीं? BJP’s Members are reaching out to us, asking us to support this Bill wholeheartedly saying “no ifs and no buts प्लीज, पूरा सपोटण कीतजए।” To them, we say very clearly that we not only support Women’s Reservation Bill but in truth it is Mamata Banerjee, India’s only female Chief Minister today, who is the mother of this Bill. She has given birth to the original idea where she has unconditionally sent 37 per cent of women MPs to this Parliament. What have you brought here? What this Government brought here today is not Women’s Reservation Bill. It is Women’s Reservation Rescheduling Bill and should be renamed as such. Its agenda is delay. Its agenda is not reservation. The endless dithering over when there will be the next census, when there will be the next delimitation will only ensure that the urgent need of reservation for women in elections to the Parliament and to the State Legislatures will be indefinitely delayed yet again. Alas, this is not the historic Bill that it is being touted as. It is a sham. For the women and the men, and the girls and the boys who would be the future women and men of India, we had better recognise this, recognise this because it is staring at us in the face. And I also hope that there are sufficient numbers amongst us, the current Members of Parliament, who also recognize this Bill for what it is. It is a sham. The question of women’s reservation requires action, not the placebo of legislatively mandated procrastination. To the Government and to the Ruling Party, I say this. Give us this day our equal rights. We hold up half the sky. Give us at least a third of our earth. Mamata Banerjee and the Trinamool Congress have already walked the talk. We do not need to go on record to show this country that we support the Bill. We have already sent more MPs than what this Bill even envisions. It is you, this Government, this ruling dispensation that needs to go on record. You need to support us, not the other way around. You need to send more than 33 per cent MPs to this Parliament. When this Government wanted to protect cows – I support the move, make no mistake – you did not wait to count the number of cows, you did not wait to see whether the cow was a Jerseyor a Giror a Sahiwal. You just went and built cow shelters. Are we women any less that we have to wait while you count numbers and you draw lines? We do not need any more vandans. We do not need any more vandanas. Thank you very much. What we need is the direct action. Hon. Prime Minister, this is your moment to really show us that मोदी है िो ममुतकन हैं। Implement the reservation Bill immediately based on today’s voters list. Send 33 per cent women to Parliament. Send 33 per cent women to Parliament in 2024 from the BJP the way our Party has done. Support us unreservedly. In conclusion, I can only echo the poet Rehana Roohi’s words. “तदल केबहलानेका सामान न समझा जाए, हमको अब इिना भी आसान न समझा जाए। हम भी लोगों की िरह जीनेका हक माूंगिेहैं, इसको बगावि का ऐलान न समझा जाए।” Thank you very much.
