Union parliamentary affairs minister Kiren Rijiju and Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi were locked in a war of words on Saturday over the women’s reservation bill, amid a stalemate over the Centre’s move to link it to the proposed delimitation exercise. The exchange began after Gandhi accused the Union government of “unnecessarily linking” the two bills, prompting Rijiju to call it a “visible change of heart about women” and challenged Gandhi to support the women’s quota bill. Gandhi hit back, questioning why the legislation was being unnecessarily linked to delimitation.
The development comes amid repeated attempts by Rijiju to reach out to Gandhi to break the ongoing deadlock in Parliament regarding the passage of the Constitution Amendment Bill linked to delimitation and the Women’s Reservation Act, 2023, which reserves one-third of seats for women in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies. On August 6, Rijiju had a telephonic conversation with Gandhi to seek support for the passage of the women’s reservation and delimitation bills, but the leader of opposition insisted on convening an all-party meeting on the proposed legislation, officials aware of the matter had said.
