Cabinet approves Women's Reservation Bill: Reports

Union Minister Prahlad Singh Patel praising the Modi government for displaying moral courage by meeting the demand for women's reservation, earlier tweeted, "Only the Modi government had the moral courage to fulfil the demand for women's reservation. Which was proved by the approval of the cabinet. Congratulations PM Narendra Modi and congratulations to the PM Modi government."

The Union Cabinet met in the evening after the first session of the five-day special parliamentary session. Several Union ministers, including Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah, Piyush Goyal, Pralhad Joshi, S Jaishankar, Nirmala Sitharaman, Dharmendra Pradhan, Nitin Gadkari, and Arjun Ram Meghwal, were present at the cabinet meeting.

The Prime Minister earlier in the day addressing the media said that "historic decisions" would be taken during this Parliament session.

Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh, reacting to the reported approval of the Bill by the Union Cabinet, said his party has long advocated for the implementation of women's reservation.

He welcomed the decision of the Cabinet and said he is looking forward to knowing more about the specifics of the bill.

Ramesh tweeted, "It’s been a long-standing demand of the Congress party to implement women’s reservation. We welcome the reported decision of the Union Cabinet and await the details of the Bill. This could have very well been discussed in the all-party meeting before the Special Session, and consensus could have been built instead of operating under a veil of secrecy."

The last significant development on the matter took place in 2010, when the measure to reserve 33 percent of seats for women in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies was passed by the Rajya Sabha amid a commotion. However, the bill lapsed because the Lok Sabha was unable to pass it.

Even though the BJP and the Congress have consistently backed the legislation, there have been major disagreements over it due to criticism from other parties and calls for a backward class quota inside the women's quota from some.

Many parties had presented a strong case for bringing and approving the women's reservation bill during the session at an all-party meeting on September 17.

Congress president and leader of the opposition Mallikarjun Kharge earlier in the day speaking during a discussion on 'Parliamentary Journey of 75 years Starting from Samvidhan Sabha - Achievements, Experiences, Memories And Learnings,' said, "Women Reservation Bill should come. We all tried. This issue if you (Chair) raise then they will."