Amit Shah: Union Home Minister Amit Shah has outrightly rejected the demand by Samajwadi Party Supremo Akhilesh Yadav for a separate reservation quota for Muslim women.
Amit Shah In Lok Sabha
On Thursday, the Lok Sabha witnessed a war of words between Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav and Union Home Minister Amit Shah. At one point of time, the Home Minister urged Yadav to give all of his party seats to women from the Muslim community. This was after Yadav said that representation in the political system must reflect social diversity and his party would not support the reservation bill if it doesn’t have representation for Muslim and OBC women.
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Akhilesh Yadav Questions Urgency Of Bills
Earlier, Yadav questioned the urgency of the Women’s reservation bill and asked that the union government must instead first start with the census. The SP Chief that his party opposes implementation of the women’s bill via delimitation but is not against the bill.
In response, Amit Shah responded that the state-wise census process has already been initiated and the union government is working on plans for a caste-based enumeration. The home minister went on to say that Akhilesh Yadav’s demand for reservation based on religion is purely unconstitutional.
Shah confirmed to the Parliament that the 2026 census that is presently being performed would have a caste column, suggesting that caste data would form an integral part of the census exercise. However, Shah rejected any demand for religion-based reservations saying it does not align with the Indian Constitution’s framework.
Voting for the Women’s Reservation Bill (Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam) will be held at 4pm on Friday in the Lok Sabha. The bill is seeking 33 percent reservation for women in the state legislative assemblies and the Lok Sabha.
Opposition parties don’t have much say in any of the Parliament houses and the bill is likely to be passed in the Lok Sabha tomorrow.
