Women's Reservation Bill: Modi's "Historic Step" Hailed, Congress Urged to Support

Speaking with ANI, Pathak called the reservation a "constitutional pathway to equal opportunity," and said that the Indian democracy will reach its true strength with powerful women's representation. She added that the step will provide a public leadership domain for women from every background.

"Bharat's democracy reaches its true strength only when women move from participation to powerful representation, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi's commitment reflects a historic corrective step towards that goal. Women constitute nearly half of Bharat's population, yet their voices remain underrepresented in legislative decision-making that directly shapes families, education, health and social justice. Reservation is not a privilege but a constitutional pathway to equal opportunity, enabling capable women from every social and economic background to enter public leadership, she said.

This comes after Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday said he has urged Congress to give full support to the proposed amendment to the Women's Reservation Bill, which would be taken up during the special sitting of the Parliament later this month and said the opposition party should not do politics over the issue.

PM Modi said that there would be discussion during the special sitting of Parliament on April 16, 17 and 18 so that provision is made for implementation of one-third reservation for women from the 2029 Lok Sabha elections and hoped that the decision would be made unanimously.

He accused the Congress of stalling the issue of women's reservation for years and said the Nari Shakti Vandan Act, through which sisters and daughters will get 33% reservation in the country's Parliament and the Assam Legislative Assembly as well, was passed when the BJP-led NDA government was in power.

"A special session of Parliament is scheduled for April 16, 17, and 18, in which there will be a discussion on amendments to the women's reservation law. Provisions will be made that at least 33 per cent of women become MPs in the 2029 Lok Sabha elections," he said.

"I have also urged Congress that it should not do politics on this, give full support to the amendment so that a decision in favour of women is made unanimously," he added.

On the other hand, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh alleged last week that the government's decision for Parliament's special sitting was a violation of the Model Code of Conduct.

He said the government had earlier decided to implement the Women's Reservation Bill from the 2034 polls based on the new Census when Congress was demanding its early implementation.

The Congress leader said the party had suggested that an all-party meeting should be held on April 29 after the conclusion of the assembly polls.

Lok Sabha has 543 seats and a proposed 50 per cent increase will take the number to 816, with 273 (about a third) reserved for women.

- ANI