New Delhi, August 9, 2026 (Yes Punjab News)
Congress MP Pramod Tiwari on Sunday accused Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju of misleading the public on the implementation of the Women’s Reservation Bill, asserting that his party would fully support the legislation but oppose any attempt to link it with delimitation.
Speaking to IANS, Tiwari said the Congress had supported the Women’s Reservation Bill during the UPA-1 and UPA-2 governments and again backed it when the legislation was introduced by the Narendra Modi government in 2023.
“Kirien Rijiju is lying, misleading people, making false statements, and trying to confuse the country. We brought the Women’s Reservation Bill when the UPA-1 and UPA-2 governments were in power. Even when it was introduced in 2023 by this government, we supported it,” Tiwari said.
He maintained that women’s reservation and delimitation were separate matters and urged the government to implement the law without attaching conditions.
“But women’s reservation and delimitation are two different issues. Bring the women’s reservation, implement it, and we will fully support it in 2029,” he said.
Tiwari also alleged that the government was seeking to use women’s reservation as a basis for delimitation and said the Congress would oppose any move that it believes could disadvantage states such as Assam and West Bengal.
“But if they want to use it as a pretext for delimitation…, we will not allow that,” he said.
The remarks came amid a fresh political exchange between the Congress and the government over the implementation of the women’s reservation law and its possible connection with delimitation.
Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi had on Saturday responded to Rijiju’s remarks, stating that the Women’s Reservation Bill, 2023, was passed unanimously with Congress support and questioning why it had not yet been implemented.
“Mr Rijiju, who would know better than you, as the Minister of Parliamentary Affairs – that the Women’s Reservation Bill 2023 has already been passed unanimously, with the full support of the Congress,” Gandhi said in a post on X.
“The question is, why has it still not been implemented even after three years, and why do you now want to unnecessarily link it to delimitation? Implement the 2023 law. Without any conditions,” he added.
Rijiju had responded by saying that the Congress should have no difficulty in supporting the Women’s Reservation Bill in Parliament.
The exchange followed Gandhi’s comments on women in an Instagram post on Friday, after he discussed the issue during his “Ask Me Anything” session on Thursday. Gandhi had stressed that India could not achieve its full potential unless women had greater freedom and space to express themselves and participate in public life.
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