New Delhi: Hitting out at the Centre, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday said that Women’s Reservation Bill is a distraction and diversion tactic from the OBC quota and nobody knows if this will even be implemented.  His statement comes a day after the Bill was passed in the Special Session of Parliament.

“Women’s Reservation Bill is great but we received two footnotes that Census and Delimitation need to be done before that. Both of these will take years. The truth is that the Reservation can be implemented today…This is not a complicated matter but the Govt doesn’t want to do that. Govt has presented this before the country but it will be implemented 10 years from now. Nobody knows if this will even be implemented. This is a distraction tactic, diversion tactic”, the Wayanad MP said while addressing the media.

He added,”What is it that you are being diverted from? From OBC Census. I spoke of one institution in Parliament, that which runs the Government of India – Cabinet secretary and secretaries…I asked why only three out of 90 people belong to the OBC community?…I don’t understand that PM Modi speaks of OBCs every day but what did he do for them?”

On the other hand, when asked if he regrets that the OBC quota was not provided under the Bill brought by UPA in 2010, Rahul said,”100% regret hai. This should have been done then. We will get this done…”

For the unversed, the 128th Constitutional Amendment Bill 2023, also called Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, was passed during the Special Session of Parliament which began on Monday. The two Houses were adjourned sine die on Thursday, a day before the scheduled ending of the session, after the Bill was passed. Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam is the first bill passed by Parliament in its new building.