'Highly objectionable, unacceptable': CPI(M) on Modi govt's proposal linking 33% women's quota with LS, Assembly seats

New Delhi: The CPI(M) on Friday found fault with the Modi government's proposal linking the 33% women's quota with the increase in Lok Sabha and Assembly seats and demanded wider consultations with states and parties.

It insisted that the reservation for women in legislatures could still be implemented for 2029 polls by delinking it from Census and delimitation.

In a statement, the party's Polit Bureau reiterated its commitment to the "mandatory" reservation of one-third seats for women but accused the Modi government of lacking the "required political will" to implement it at the earliest through bringing an amendment to delink 33% quota and delimitation.

The CPI(M) statement as the Union Cabinet cleared Bills for the early implementation of 33% quota after increasing seats in Lok Sabha and Assemblies by 50%. 

It said the party "has been and is committed to a mandatory reservation" of 33% seats for women and that was why in 2023, despite its opposition to the linking of women’s reservation to the Census and delimitation as proposed in the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, they supported the passage of the Constitution (108th Amendment) Bill. 

Even at that time, it said, the CPI(M) had noted that the linkage would mean such a delay that women would be denied their right to one third seats not only in the 2024 elections but also in the 2029 elections. 

Now after two years where neither a Delimitation Commission has been set up nor the Census started as promised, it said, the Modi government has come up with new proposals once again without any discussions with the opposition parties despite the repeated demand for an all-party meeting. 

"It is highly objectionable and unacceptable that such a proposal is being made at a time of state assembly elections geared to a narrow political aim of electoral benefit. The proposal itself makes a fresh link of women’s reservation to another aim, namely an increase in the number of seats in Parliament and in Assemblies through a delimitation exercise based on the 2011 census," it said.

"This raises many issues which cannot be pushed through and requires discussion and consultation with all states. The CPI(M) demands that the proposals be postponed to enable wider discussions and consultations with all political parties and states regarding the implication of the increase in seats," it said.

It said the women’s reservation can be implemented from the 2029 Lok Sabha polls in the given framework which will require an amendment to delink women’s reservations from the Census and delimitation. But clearly the Modi government lacks the required political will to do so.