‘How many party tickets did AIMIM give to women?’ Citizens question Owaisi’s opposition to Women’s Reservation Bill

Hyderabad: The Women’s Reservation Bill (WRB), seeking a 33 per cent seat reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and the state Legislative Assemblies, in the pipeline since 1996, was finally passed by the Lok Sabha on September 20 and unanimously by the Rajya Sabha the following day.

Lok Sabha passed the bill with 454 votes in favour and two MPs from the AIMIM party voting against the bill.

No immediate implementation

Even if the bill has been passed this year, it is unlikely that it will be passed anytime soon. However, the terms and conditions like conducting a fresh census (scheduled for 2031 after the 2026 census) followed by a delimitation exercise (for fixing boundaries of constituencies) have put immediate implementation of the bill on hold.

Various political parties including senior Congress leaders have sought implementation of the bill for the Lok Sabha elections in 2024 and some have also questioned the absence of reservation for OBC women in the bill.

Why did AIMIM MP Asaduddin Owaisi oppose the bill?

The All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) MP from Hyderabad, Asaduddin Owaisi, opposed the bill and voted against the legislation. In his contention, he said in the Lok Sabha that if the bill is meant “to ensure more women get elected in the Parliament and state Assemblies, then why is this justification not extended for OBC and Muslim women? Muslim women form 7 per cent of the population. But in this Lok Sabha, their representation is only 0.7 per cent. The annual dropout rate of Muslim girls is 19 per cent while it is 12 per cent for other women. Nearly half of the Muslim women are illiterate. Out of the 690 women elected till the 17th Lok Sabha, only 25 women have come from the Muslim community.”

According to Owaisi, this form of women’s reservation bill will benefit savarna (general caste women) only, unless there is a quota for OBCs and Muslim women within the bill. He calls this bill discriminatory and not inclusive. “The government is deceiving the Muslim community by denying them the quota of reservation. This selective affirmation is an election stunt,” he said.

Interestingly, Asaduddin Owaisi’s stance of opposing the bill on the grounds of discrimination did not find support among the minority community. Urban Muslims actively associated with politics questioned the MP’s mindset about equal rights for women. The MP was criticised for being “regressive,” “insecure about losing his stronghold,” “opportunist,” an “attention-seeker” and not practising what he preaches.

‘Instead of communalising, AIMIM should give election tickets to women candidates’

Shaik Abdullah Sohail, chairman of the Telangana State Congress Committee of the minority department, countered the AIMIM MP’s words spoken at the Lok Sabha.

“Why would Muslim women require a separate quota within the women’s reservation quota? If OBCs are included in the reservation bill in the future, it will automatically include most categories of Muslims and other minorities. Instead of communalising every development, let Owaisi answer how many Muslim minority women were given MLA tickets by MIM so far or in the upcoming Assembly polls?” he said.

‘What has AIMIM done for the empowerment of women?’

Asma Tasneem, social media in-charge for Telangana Congress, was also vocal in criticising the AIMIM MP.

“Being a barrister, he should have at least that level of understanding to realise that the Women’s Reservation Bill is universally applicable to all women, irrespective of caste, creed, class, religion. His opposition to the Bill asking for Muslim quota, which was agreed upon by all other opposition parties, reflects his regressive mindset, attention-seeking attitude and attempts at polarisation to actually help BJP’s communal agenda,” Asma said.

“As for BJP, they are now taking the credit for the bill, the concept of which was mooted long ago, during the Congress era. But this bill is just a political gimmick and a farce because riddled with clauses of delimitation and census, one has to wait for several years for its implementation. The ruling party, which never cared about real empowerment for women, is just fooling the voters,” Asma added.

“Barely 5 per cent of Muslim women have higher education beyond schooling. What has the AIMIM MP done for the upliftment of Muslim women in his own constituency?” added Asma.

‘Nobody is actually keen to implement the bill’

Varsha Bhargavi, a research scholar and director of a gender-sensitisation collective called Where are the Women, said that even though she has a lot of respect for Asaduddin Owaisi, she cannot support the MIM MP this time.

“The passing of the bill in itself is a step towards women's empowerment. Even if the ruling party has done it as an election gimmick, Owaisi should not have opposed it just to be in the limelight. The truth is that nobody was very keen to actually pass the bill so it got delayed for more than two decades and its implementation will be further delayed due to census and delimitation clauses. If the ruling party really wants, it can be implemented immediately based on population trends just like how we have reservations for women in village panchayats and local bodies. Only qualified capable women should be recruited in politics irrespective of caste and religion. There should be no nepotism and no patriarchal control and the women should not be mere party workers but efficient leaders,” said Varsha.

'All parties should also ask for OBC reservation'

Padmaja Shaw, a retired professor of journalism from Osmania University, pointed out that earlier the bill could not be passed because the opposition (BJP at that time) had vehemently opposed the non-inclusion of OBC reservation within the bill.

“It’s an irony that the same BJP passed the Bill now without the OBC reservation, usurping the credit. But still, the half-heartedly passed bill is likely to come into effect only from 2039 after the census of 2031 and the redrawing of constituencies, which will take some more years. What Owaisi said now should be demanded by all parties — the OBC and minority reservation. The only difference is that he did not support the bill as he felt it was complicated and fraudulent and the ruling party was trying to trick voters. The bill should be implemented from the 2024 elections and there is no need to wait for delimitation and census, similarly how it was implemented for panchayats and local bodies,” she said.

'Unbiased political will is required to uplift Muslim women’

Professor Shahida Murtaza, director, Centre for Women’s Studies, Maulana Azad National Urdu University observed that the women Reservation Bill is merely an eyewash. With the precondition of Census and delimitation, there seems to be no scope of its implementation in the near future.

Actually for their own vested interests, no political party, barring a few, wants strong, intellectual women to lead and neither do they practice what they preach.

“There is inequality from the grassroot level itself. Despite the Sachar Committee (2006) and then the Kundu Committee (2016) reports and suggestions to bring Muslim women into the mainstream, there has been no changes, no progress, no implementation of the expert suggestions. Various gender-related studies reveal bias towards education, employment and hiring of Muslim women. Most Muslim women dwelling in slums are not even aware of the government schemes and subsidies. Genuine political will among all parties is required to uplift the condition of minority Muslim. The rider of Census and delimitation process means there is a lack of will. If they wished to advance the next Census, they could have amended Articles 82 and 170.

But is there a need to go for such a lengthy process? At the Grama Panchayat level, we could go with 33 % reservation without a hitch, why not adopt the same method now? Lottery method for that matter. There is no clarity on faith-based reservation either in the Bill," she stated.

‘AIMIM should question the needless delay in implementation of the bill’

Social and political activist Md. Mushtaq Malik, president of Tehreek Muslim Shabban, pointed out that the inclusion of quotas for OBCs and minority Muslim women would ensure fair representation of all classes of women in the Lok Sabha and state Assemblies. He said that the opposition should expose how the ruling party is trying to impress women voters without any actual intention to implement the 33 per cent reservation from the 2024 elections.

“While I support Owaisi’s questioning about not including OBCs and minority women within the Women’s Reservation Bill, I still feel he should not have voted against it. Owaisi could also give tickets to deserving women contestants for the state Assembly elections, who have leadership abilities and are not under the shadow of their husbands. Also, like Rahul Gandhi, the MIM MP could have asked the BJP government about needlessly delaying the implementation of the bill by another 10-15 years with conditions like fresh census and delimitation,” he observed.