New Delhi : Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s letter to all parties, seeking support for the passage of an amendment to the Women’s Reservation Bill, has drawn a sharp response from Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge. The veteran Congressman has said the government is seeking the opposition’s cooperation without revealing details about the legislation. This, Kharge has said, reinforces the opposition’s belief that the Centre is hurrying to implement the Bill to “gain political mileage rather than truly empower women”.
In his response, Kharge said that when the Parliament passed the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam in 2023, the Congress had demanded that the important law become effective immediately.
“It has been 30 months since then, and now this special sitting has been called without taking us into confidence and your government is seeking our cooperation again without revealing any details on the delimitation going to be done. You will appreciate that without details of the delimitation and other aspects, it would be impossible to have any useful discussion on this historic law,” he wrote.
‘You mention in your letter that your government has engaged in dialogue with political parties regarding this. However, I am pained to point out that this goes against the truth since all the Opposition parties have been urging the Government to call an All-Party meeting after the current round of elections is over on 29th 2026 to discuss the Constitution amendments being contemplated,” Kharge added.
“The calling of a special sitting during the ongoing state elections only reinforces our belief that your government is hurrying the implementation of the bill to gain political mileage rather than truly empower women,” he said.
The Congress president wrote that the government’s record in matters of public importance, including demonetisation, GST, Census or those linked to the federal structure, does not inspire confidence. “The constitutional amendments being planned will affect both the Centre and the states and it is important that all parties and states, however small they may be, are heard in a democracy,” he said.
“If the special sitting is meant to ‘strengthen our democracy’ and ‘moving forward together’, taking everyone along as you write in the letter, then I would suggest that the government convene an All-Party meeting any time after April 29th to discuss the delimitation issue which is being linked to the amendment to the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, 2023,” he said.
