Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday led the opposition’s debate in Lok Sabha amid a row over linking the Delimitation Bill to the Women’s Quota Act, where he joked that both he and Prime Minister Narendra
Modi do not have wives.
“Women are a central and driving force in our national imagination, in our national perspective. All of us, every single one in this room, has been influenced, taught, learnt a lot from women in our lives, be it mothers, sisters and wives,” the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha said.
“Of course, Prime Minister and I don’t have that ‘wife’ issue. So we don’t get that input. We have our mothers and sisters for that,” he quipped, drawing laughter from MPs in the House. “Yesterday, my sister achieved something that I have not been able to do in may be 20 years of our political career which was to make Amit Shah ji smile.”
Delhi: Lok Sabha LoP Rahul Gandhi says, “Women are a central force, a driving force in our national imagination and in our national perspective. All of us – every single one in this room – has been influenced, taught, and learned a lot from the women in their lives: mothers,… pic.twitter.com/HBtu9g1bkZ
— IANS (@ians_india) April 17, 2026
After the light-hearted moment, Gandhi trained his guns on the Centre over the issue of women’s quota. “This is not a women’s bill; this has nothing to do with empowerment of women. This is an attempt to change the electoral map,” he alleged.
He also accused the BJP-led Centre of snatching representation from southern and northeastern states. “Where are the OBCs and Adivasis? You don’t give them any space. You call them Hindus, but you don’t give them any rights,” he remarked, sparking a ruckus in the House.
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“Instead of providing women’s reservation, which is very easy to do, and which every opposition member is ready to support right now, they should bring back the original bill immediately, and we will help pass it for implementation from this very moment,” he added.
The Lok Sabha is continuing its debate on the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, 2026, which proposes 33% reservation for women in Parliament and state assemblies. The discussion also covers the Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2026, aimed at extending the provision to Delhi and Jammu and Kashmir, as well as the Delimitation Bill, which seeks to redraw and expand Lok Sabha constituencies, potentially raising their number to 850.
Congress has criticised the proposed linkage between women’s reservation and delimitation. Senior MP Shashi Tharoor said it effectively “holds the aspirations of Indian women hostage” to a highly contentious political process.
