Nirmala Sitharaman, a BJP minister, attributes the women’s quota law to former Cong PM Narasimha Rao

The late former prime minister PV Narasimha Rao’s government was praised for establishing 33% women’s reservation in panchayat raj at the time by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday.

“I wish to acknowledge the 33% reservation that was put into place at the time by the administration of former Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao. Because of this, Sitharaman said in a Rajya Sabha address on the women’s quota bill, “we have seen a groundswell at the panchayat level, where 33 percent reservation has now been enhanced to 50% by many states, demonstrating the participation of women at the panchayat level.”

India’s prime minister, PV Narasimha Rao, served in that position from June 1991 to May 1996.

In order to implement a one-third quota in panchayats and nagar palikas, then-Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi initially proposed Constitution Amendment Bills in May 1989. The Rajya Sabha rejected the proposals in September 1989, despite the Lok Sabha having passed them.

Narasimha Rao reintroduced these Constitution Amendment Bills in April 1993 to get them passed and to secure a one-third quota for women in panchayats and nagar palikas. This time, both laws were passed into law after passing the parliamentary procedure.

Regardless of their party affiliation, Rajya Sabha MPs on Thursday approved the Bill to provide women 33% of the seats in the lower house of parliament and state legislatures.

The necessity to pass the women’s reservation law without waiting for a fresh census and delimitation process was also underlined during the Rajya Sabha debate.

Parties like JDU, BRS, CPI(M), and others poked fun of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) while supporting the legislation, claiming that the ruling party had promised to present the women’s reservation law in 2014 and again in 2019 but failed to do so. They also questioned the introduction of the “Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam”.

Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) legislator Manoj Jha demanded that a select committee be tasked with determining whether to extend the same safeguards to Other Backward Classes.

KC Venugopal, a senior congressman, pressed for the law’s prompt implementation. He also demanded quota for OBC women in the bill. The women’s reservation bill was approved by the Lok Sabha with 454 votes in favor and 2 votes against it.