India
oi-Ashish Rana
Opening his address with an apology to women across the country, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said he was sorry to the nation’s “mothers and daughters” after the Women’s Reservation Bill was derailed in the Lok Sabha, calling the setback a painful moment for those who had waited years for greater political representation.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi apologised on Saturday for the Lok Sabha’s failure to pass the women’s reservation bill, acknowledging the setback to implementing the desired 33% quota for women in legislatures.
“Today I’m here to discuss an important issue, especially for the women of this country. Every citizen of this country is witnessing how women’s progress has stalled… Despite our best efforts, we haven’t succeeded. Amendments could not be made in the Nari Shakti Adhiniyam. And I apologise to all the mothers and sisters of the nation for this,” Modi said in his address. The Prime Minister framed the failed legislation as a setback not just for the government, but for women whose long-pending demand for a 33 per cent quota in legislatures remained unfulfilled.
He also launched a political attack on the opposition, specifically naming the Congress and the DMK, and accused them of turning the proposed law into a “target of hatred and petty politics”. Modi suggested that the parties had chosen partisan calculations over women’s empowerment, as the BJP sought to portray the defeat of the bill as a larger betrayal of women’s aspirations and national progress.
The Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, which aimed to operationalise the women’s reservation framework before the 2029 Lok Sabha elections, failed to secure the required two-thirds majority in the Lower House on Friday night. The bill received 298 votes in favour and 230 against, while 352 votes were needed out of the 528 members who voted. The proposal also included increasing Lok Sabha seats from 543 to 816 and expanding seats in state and Union Territory assemblies as part of the mechanism to implement 33 per cent reservation for women.
