Women's Reservation Bill: Rahul Gandhi addresses the Bill's drawbacks

9/22/2023

Congress MP Rahul Gandhi on Friday praised the women's reservation bill but called it a distraction and diversion tactic from the demand for a caste census. Upon being asked if he regrets that the OBC quota was not provided under the Bill brought by UPA in 2010, Rahul Gandhi said, "100 per cent regret hai. This should have been done then. We will get this done." On Thursday, the Parliament passed the women's reservation bill after 214 lawmakers present in the Rajya Sabha voted in its favour.

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Transcript

00:00 Do you regret that Congress did not issue the OBC quota?

00:02 I regret it 100%.

00:04 I regret it 100%.

00:06 It should have been done at that time.

00:08 And we will leave it after it is done.

00:10 When the bill came in 2010,

00:22 if Congress had issued the same quota

00:24 that Congress is asking for,

00:26 then this law would have been passed

00:28 10 years ago.

00:30 So, the question that you are being asked

00:32 that you are talking about OBC quota today

00:34 because you are against it.

00:36 When you brought the bill in the opposition,

00:38 why was the OBC quota not there?

00:40 Do you regret that Congress did not issue the OBC quota?

00:42 I regret it 100%.

00:44 I regret it 100%.

00:46 It should have been done at that time.

00:48 And we will leave it after it is done.

00:50 Rahul Ji, what has changed since 2010 to now that you have shifted your stance on OBC quota?

01:01 We have not shifted our stance.

01:03 You are maybe not well informed.

01:05 We are the party that did the caste census.

01:07 We carried out an entire census getting caste data.

01:09 We did not release it at that time.

01:11 There was an internal discussion.

01:13 We did not release it at that time.

01:15 There was an internal discussion.

01:17 We did not release it at that time.

01:19 There was an internal discussion.

01:21 We should have released it at that time.

01:23 And it should be released now.

01:25 There is no change in our view on this.

01:27 There was near unanimity in the passage of the bills.

01:29 Do you think that a wider consultation process should have been followed before bringing the bill in the special session?

01:45 We are okay with the bill.

01:47 We have supported the bill.

01:49 Please understand the technicality.

01:51 We are in full support of the bill.

01:53 We don't agree with the two little footnotes that have been put in the bill that basically mean that the bill is going to be implemented 10 years from today.