In Parliament’s pushback on Women’s Reservation Bill, a lesson for government

The defeat of the constitutional amendment to implement women’s reservation in Lok Sabha is not a full stop, but an enormously welcome and extremely consequential pause. Even after the collapse of the bills piloted by the Narendra Modi government on Friday, Parliament’s commitment to women’s reservation stands enshrined in the 2023 law. But for the Modi government, the failure of its bid to link women’s reservation to expansion of the number of seats in Lok Sabha and state assemblies, and a fresh delimitation after lifting the five decades-long freeze, is a setback it has not faced before. Ironically, it comes on an issue on which there is a broad political consensus. On the other side of the aisle, this is a moment of assertion for a united Opposition, which spoke in one voice, held together, forcefully articulated its concerns. It pointed to the government’s haste and its inexplicable turnaround from its 2023 position. It questioned the refusal to wait for data of the ongoing census, which will include caste numbers. Most of all, it flagged the cloud of distrust on delimitation’s institutional mechanism, giving rise to apprehensions that the intricate balance between equity in representation and federal fairness would be disturbed. That states would be pitted against each other. The Modi government will use this defeat to lay claim to custodianship of the cause of women’s empowerment, and add it to its repertoire of political-ideological projects. It will try to turn the political tables by painting the Opposition as obstructionist, and anti-women in particular. Prime Minister Modi invoked a “naari shakti” that was gathering force on the ground; Home Minister Amit Shah clubbed the Opposition’s objections to the constitutional amendment with its resistance to other large moves, from the abrogation of Article 370 to the building of Ram Mandir, from CAA to triple talaq and the surgical strikes on Pakistan and, even, Operation Sindoor. But the government cannot escape the verdict written plainly on the Lok Sabha wall: Its failure to pass its own bill exposes the limits of governing by fiat, of pursuing transformative change without consultation, and with a fraught record of institutional integrity. Numbers in Parliament are not a substitute for trust. The Opposition cannot afford to savour this moment for long. Stalling the Bill and winning the national argument are two different things. It must find the language not just to sidestep the BJP’s trap, but also to communicate to the people why it opposed the Bill and what it proposes instead. Much more than its own political-electoral fortunes depend on it. While women’s reservation is long delayed and also backed by a political consensus, the process of implementation matters. It must not stoke spectres, like north vs south, peninsula vs heartland. It must navigate the thorny question of caste. Most of all, it must be institutionalised in good faith, not poisoned by a delimitation exercise the nation does not yet trust. The Lok Sabha battle is over. The larger fight for women, and for the polity, is not. The government must learn its lesson from this defeat. The Opposition must remain mindful of its unfinished challenge.