Kamal Ghorui
On April 17, 2026, the Lok Sabha witnessed a stark display of political cynicism. The Women’s Reservation Bill, which sought to reserve one-third of seats in Parliament and state assemblies for women, was defeated. The Congress-led INDIA Alliance killed the measure—not through substantive debate, but through calculated obstruction. What could have been a landmark reform for half the nation’s population became yet another casualty of the opposition’s self-interest.
India, the world’s largest democracy, stood on the cusp of a historic shift. The bill aimed to integrate women fully into policymaking, elevating dignity and representation to the highest levels of governance. It was never merely about numbers. It represented an opportunity to bring the Indian home into the Temple of Democracy. The ruling NDA government placed the bill before Parliament as a national imperative, urging MPs to rise above partisan lines for the sake of Nari Shakti. The opposition’s response was swift and predictable: delay, derail, and deny.
For three decades, the same forces had stalled women’s political empowerment. In their desperation to safeguard personal fiefdoms, the INDIA Alliance once again sacrificed the interests of India’s women. Grandmothers waited, mothers hoped, and now daughters face another generation of exclusion. The defeat was not about policy differences. It exposed a deep-seated resistance to women occupying positions of real power.
The opposition’s actions reveal a clear pattern. By blocking the bill, they have deliberately restricted women’s representation at the apex of governance, protecting their own turf at the expense of 50 per cent of the population. This was no isolated political tactic. It laid bare an orthodox mindset that questions women’s competence in top policy roles. The Congress party, in particular, has a long record of prioritising alliances over women’s rights. In the 1980s, Rajiv Gandhi’s government overturned the Supreme Court’s Shah Bano verdict, denying Muslim women alimony. It took the NDA years later to correct that injustice by banning triple talaq. Today’s vote marks another chapter in the same regressive playbook.
The opposition’s favourite defence—the panchayat reservations—only highlights its hypocrisy. Congress and its allies claim credit for one-third reservation for women at the village level. They supported it because it posed no threat to their own seats in Parliament or state assemblies. When the principle moved to the legislative level, where actual power resides, they blocked it at every turn. For 30 years they have offered conditional support—“We back it, but…”—always finding a technicality or coalition excuse. This time, they attempted to frame the debate as a North-South divide, sowing discord to mask their anti-women stance. For the INDIA Alliance, women’s rights remain a tool of political convenience, not conviction.
The BJP led Govt inherited a dismal legacy in 2014. Indian women faced open defecation, absent LPG connections, unreliable water supply and homelessness. Millions lacked banking access or formal credit. Over the past decade, the Modi government addressed these challenges through targeted schemes: Swachh Bharat, Ujjwala, Jal Jeevan Mission, PM Awas Yojana and Jan Dhan Yojana. The opposition responded with mockery, criticism. When the government moved to extend grassroots gains into parliamentary representation, the INDIA Alliance derailed it again, placing narrow political survival above women’s progress.
History records the pattern in detail. The Women’s Reservation Bill was first introduced in 1996 under the Deve Gowda government. It died when the government fell—the template Congress later refined. Between 1998 and 2003, Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s NDA made four attempts to pass it. Each was thwarted by the very parties now allied with Congress: the Samajwadi Party stormed the House; the RJD blocked it outright, insisting OBC quotas came first and women could wait. In 1998, an RJD MP physically tore up the bill on the floor of Parliament—an act of contempt, not debate.
During the UPA’s decade in power (2004-2014), Sonia Gandhi’s Congress held a clear majority. In 2010, the Rajya Sabha passed the bill amid applause. Yet the Lok Sabha never introduced it—not once over the next four years. Coalition compulsions, the government later admitted, mattered more than women. Mulayam Singh Yadav, a key UPA ally, openly made derogatory remarks against women MPs while leading the charge to kill the bill. Congress remained silent. Power trumped principle.
The defeat on April 17, 2026, is no aberration. It is the culmination of thirty years of calculated betrayal. The INDIA Alliance preaches equality while practising exclusion. It claims progressiveness but remains captive to regressive allies who view women’s advancement as a threat.
The NDA government has consistently placed women’s empowerment above partisan credit. It offered the opposition full political ownership of the reform if only they would allow passage. HM Amit Shah even offered to put in paper all the commitments made in the House on delimitation and seat share of Southern States. The alliance declined.
The women of India were watching. History will record who stood with them and who stood in their way. The Temple of Democracy will eventually open its doors to Nari Shakti—not because the opposition permits it, but because the people of India will demand it. But now it is amply clear to the women of India- that Congress led opposition stood with roadblocks not reforms!
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