India, April 19 -- On Friday, 17 April 2026, the Narendra Modi government placed before Parliament the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, 2026, an act of political courage and constitutional vision designed to operationalise the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam at last. By expanding the Lok Sabha to 850 seats and aligning women's 33% reservation with a fresh delimitation, it would have translated the 2023 Act, notified on 16 April 2026, from a promise on paper into a lived reality at the 2029 general election. It was thwarted. A united opposition led by the Congress, and joined by the DMK, the Trinamool Congress and the Samajwadi Party, withheld the two-thirds majority required and denied India's women the pathway through which their consti...