Monday in the House, Haryana officials called the Congress “anti-women” while talking about the failure of the bill to change the constitution. When they were outside, Congress MLAs did both Treasury and Oppn work.
There was no plan for the Haryana assembly to meet this week. While the Cabinet was meeting in Gurugram last week, Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini asked for an extra day of work.
Every member knew that the Monday meeting was to talk about “women’s reservation” and criticise the Congress-led INDIA bloc for voting down the Constitution change bill in the Lok Sabha last month, even though nothing was said directly.
The bill linked the 33% reservation for women to the House’s growth from 543 seats before redistricting to 816 seats after.
There were, however, two new events by the time Speaker Harvindar Kalyan called the House to order on Monday. First, the Congress held an alternative meeting in the assembly’s parking lot. Second, three of its own banned MLAs showed up to the session, where their party was criticised and a vote to censure them was passed.
Why Congress didn’t do anything
Leader of the Opposition Bhupinder Singh Hooda told reporters outside that the Saini government wanted to discuss matters beyond the assembly’s authority.
He said that the quota bill for women had already been passed by Parliament with the help of Congress in 2023. He also said that the national government, not the state assembly, should decide how to implement it.
He also said that the Opposition had not been given a copy of the motion before the meeting. Hooda said, We cannot let the BJP use the Vidhan Sabha for their political games.
The assembly is a place to talk about important issues for everyone, not to follow the rules of a political party. There is public money used to run the House, and it shouldn’t be lost on any party’s plans.
He pointed out that the Center didn’t officially announce the reservation bill for women until April 16, 2026, thirty months after it was passed unanimously in September 2023.
He said, It shows that the BJP doesn’t want to give women special rights. If they really wanted to do it, they wouldn’t have waited.
When it came to the failed bill that led to Monday’s special session, Hooda said the government had done everything wrong.
A two-thirds vote is needed to change the Constitution. “If they wanted to make a change, they should have called a meeting of all parties first and asked the Opposition what they thought.” “That was necessary for it to pass,” Hooda said. “What else could it mean besides the delay in telling people about the women’s reservation?”
The Congress held its own meeting outside the assembly building, and its MLAs took on the parts of both the Treasury and the Opposition.
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What the BJP thought of the meeting
Nayab Saini, the chief minister of Haryana, didn’t miss a chance to hit the Congress.
From the House floor, he said, “People whose tires go flat are usually found in the parking lot.” “The people chose these MLAs to argue here.” There they are in the parking lot, battling shadows.
He said that the resolution on women’s reservations wasn’t a political text but rather a show of support for women’s rights. He said that members of Congress could have gone, disagreed, and said the same thing from inside the House. They were “anti-women” in thought, he said, because they chose to stay out.
He put forward a motion to scold Congress for the boycott. It passed with no votes against. Aditya Chautala and Arjun Chautala from the INLD were in the Opposition seats.
Mahipal Dhanda, Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, said that Congress was ashamed to show its face because it knew it had voted wrongly by not supporting the bill.
Krishan Bedi, a minister in the cabinet, said that women in Congress had asked them why they were against the bill.
Saini proposed a motion that said a society or area wasn’t fully grown until women had the same rights and chances as men. It said that the INDIA bloc’s vote against the bill to change the Constitution was like a “dark shadow” over a good cause.
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The troublesome part
For voting against the party’s candidate in the Rajya Sabha elections on March 16, five Congress MLAs were banned. Two of them didn’t show up to any of the events. Three, Sharily Chaudhary, Renu Bala, and Jarnail Singh, went to the House session instead of Hooda’s meeting.
Shaily Chaudhary and Renu Bala left after a while, telling reporters that they were being picked on purpose. There was only Jarnail Singh left.
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