Congress MP Pramod Tiwari on Sunday, 9 August accused Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju of 'lying' and deliberately misleading the public on the women's reservation question, asserting that his party fully backs the Women's Reservation Bill but will firmly resist any effort to tie its implementation to delimitation.

Tiwari's Core Charge Against Rijiju

Tiwari said Congress had championed women's reservation long before the current government, having backed the legislation under both UPA-1 and UPA-2 administrations, and again when the present dispensation introduced it in 2023.

'Kiren 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 insisted the two policy questions — women's political representation and the redrawing of constituency boundaries — must not be conflated. '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 added.

Congress Warns Against Using Reservation as Delimitation Pretext

Tiwari further alleged that the government is attempting to use women's reservation as political cover to advance delimitation — a process critics argue could reduce parliamentary representation for southern and eastern states. He specifically flagged Assam and West Bengal as states that could be disadvantaged.

'But if they want to use it as a pretext for delimitation..., we will not allow that,' he said. This is not the first time the opposition has raised this concern; several non-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state governments have previously objected to linking the two exercises.

Rahul Gandhi Enters the Exchange

The remarks follow a sharp political exchange that began over the weekend. Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi on Saturday reminded Rijiju that the Women's Reservation Bill 2023 was passed unanimously in Parliament with Congress's full backing, and questioned why it had not been enacted more than three years on.

In a post on X, Gandhi said: '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.' He demanded unconditional implementation: 'Implement the 2023 law. Without any conditions.'

Rijiju had earlier suggested that Congress should now face no difficulty supporting the Bill in Parliament — a remark Gandhi and Tiwari both read as an attempt to reframe the debate and deflect accountability for the delay.

Background: The Bill's Long Road

The Women's Reservation Bill, which reserves 33% of seats in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies for women, was passed in September 2023 but contains a clause linking its operationalisation to the completion of delimitation — a census-based redrawing of constituencies that has itself been delayed. Critics argue this effectively postpones women's reservation indefinitely, given that the next delimitation exercise has no confirmed timeline.

Gandhi's engagement with the issue this week also drew on his earlier 'Ask Me Anything' session on Thursday, where he spoke about the need for greater freedom and space for women in Indian society, and a subsequent Instagram post on Friday expanding those remarks. He said no country could achieve true progress if women were unable to express themselves freely.

What Comes Next

With the 2029 general elections on the horizon, the women's reservation debate is set to intensify. Congress has staked out a clear position: support for the law, opposition to the delimitation linkage. Whether the government moves to decouple the two — or uses the linkage as electoral leverage — will shape the political conversation in the sessions ahead.