Prime Minister Narendra Modi promised a “historic decision” in a brief and ill-timed parliamentary session, fueling speculation about what might happen just months before national elections.
The five-day gathering of lawmakers begins Monday with a limited agenda that includes non-controversial bills. However, Modi’s comments sparked speculation that he might deliver surprises, ranging from long-pending legislation to reserve one-third of parliamentary seats for women to changing the country’s name and even calling for early polls.
“Although this meeting is short, in terms of timing, it is very large,” Modi told reporters on Monday. “This is a meeting where historic decisions are taken.”
Opposition parties fear Modi, who holds a majority in the House of Representatives, could ram through his agenda. Here are key things to discuss:
Ladies reservation
The Women’s Reservation Bill was first introduced in 1996 to reserve 33% seats for women in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies. The bill has yet to move forward as critics say it is undemocratic and could lead to an unbalanced legislature as there are already quotas for certain castes and tribes.
At an all-party meeting on Sunday, some opposition parties and allies of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party urged the government to review the legislation. Modi’s cabinet approved the bill at a meeting on Monday night, New Delhi TV reported, without disclosing where it got the information.
Women voted at a higher rate than men in the 2019 national elections, in which the Bharatiya Janata Party swept to victory. According to post-poll research by Axis India Today, around 46 per cent of women voted for the BJP-led alliance at the time, compared to 44 per cent of men, while two other studies showed that More women than men appear to have won the party in all four states in 2022.
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Some local media reports speculated that Modi may decide to call for early elections after forming a panel to review proposals for joint federal and state voting in India. Choosing to combine elections means national voting could be brought forward from summer 2024 to this year. Time is running out, however, as rival political parties and state governments would need to agree to the proposal, and the constitution would have to be changed.
India to Bharat
Modi’s government has increasingly used the country’s colloquial name, “Bharat,” in official communications since several opposition parties joined forces to form a coalition under the acronym India. This has fueled speculation that Modi may choose to formally change the country’s name, which would also appease his nationalist voter base. Such an amendment would require a two-thirds majority in both the lower house of parliament and the upper house.
Uniform Civil Code
The government has launched consultations on replacing India’s religion-based marriage and inheritance laws with a unified civil code that would be uniform across all religions. It has been one of the priorities of the BJP during the campaign. Successive governments have shied away from taking this step, fearing it would anger voters from the majority Hindu and minority Christian and Muslim communities.
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In 2019, the Indian government made a controversial move to downgrade Jammu and Kashmir, India’s only Muslim-majority state, to a federally controlled territory, ending its decades-long autonomy. It recently said the region was on track to regain statehood, but that it might take time.
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