- J&K Congress accuses BJP of misusing women’s reservation for political restructuring
- Congress says women’s rights cannot be used as cover for democratic manipulation
Jammu, Apr 19: The Jammu and Kashmir Congress on Sunday launched a sharp attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party, alleging that the ruling party attempted to use the issue of women’s reservation as a political instrument to alter the country’s democratic and federal structure for partisan gain. The party said women’s empowerment must never be reduced to a slogan or used as a cover for institutional manipulation. The remarks came in the aftermath of the defeat of the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill in the Lok Sabha on April 17, 2026, where it failed to secure the required two-thirds majority despite receiving 298 votes in favour and 230 against. The Bill had proposed implementing a 33 per cent reservation for women in legislatures from 2029 and increasing the strength of the Lok Sabha to 816 seats.
Addressing a press conference in Jammu, Congress spokesperson Namrta Sharma said the party has always stood firmly in favour of women’s reservation and continues to support the 33 per cent quota for women in legislative bodies. She asserted that when the Women’s Reservation law was passed in 2023, the opposition had extended full support, reflecting a broad national consensus in favour of meaningful women’s representation. According to her, the problem lay not with the principle of reservation, but with the BJP’s attempt to attach it to a wider political agenda.
Sharma alleged that the BJP deliberately weakened the spirit of women’s reservation by linking its implementation to census and delimitation, thereby postponing what should have been an immediate constitutional commitment. She said the move transformed a clear promise of representation into an uncertain future assurance, allowing the government to continue using women’s rights as an electoral talking point instead of turning them into an enforceable constitutional reality.
Describing the BJP’s move as a “blatant and desperate assault” on democracy under the guise of women’s empowerment, the Congress leader said the real objective was not to secure justice for women but to push through sweeping structural changes in parliamentary representation. She alleged that by tying reservation to delimitation and seat redistribution, the government was trying to reshape the balance of power among states and alter the electoral framework in a manner favourable to itself. The Congress, she said, sees delimitation not as a routine administrative exercise, but as a deeply political process that can significantly influence representation and power equations.
Sharma further claimed that this pattern was not new and pointed to Jammu and Kashmir, where delimitation had earlier triggered allegations of bias and selective political advantage. She said the BJP was now attempting to replicate a similar model at the national level by redrawing constituencies, recalibrating representation, and consolidating power through institutional means. According to her, the message from the government was effectively coercive: either accept delimitation on its terms or face an indefinite delay in the implementation of women’s reservation. She termed this approach political blackmail and said it exposed the ruling party’s actual intentions.
The Congress leader said the defeat of the bill in the Lok Sabha was not merely a parliamentary setback for the BJP but a significant moment for democratic accountability. She described the outcome as a victory for constitutional principles, fair representation, and genuine women’s empowerment. In her view, had the government been sincere, it could have implemented women’s reservation immediately without attaching conditions such as delimitation, much like reservation has already been operationalized in panchayats and municipalities.
Reiterating the Congress stand, Sharma said the party would not allow women’s rights to be converted into campaign rhetoric or be used to legitimize structural distortions in the democratic system. She demanded immediate implementation of women’s reservation, complete delinking of the quota from delimitation, and removal of every conditional barrier that delays justice to women. She said the time had come to ensure that women receive their rightful share in legislative institutions without delay, ambiguity, or political calculation.