evidence: To understand the parliamentary procedure behind the momentous legislation, we need to also understand the politics of the pomp and ceremony of the inauguration of India’s new Parliament building. The new building has been a pet project of the BJP Government and Prime Minister Modi, and in many ways a grand expression of the BJP’s national and civilisational storytelling (and myth making). Inaugurating the new Parliament needed a strong legislative move as a symbol of the BJP’s civilisational agenda. What better than the Women’s Reservation Bill—progressive, supported by almost all parties, and therefore a legislation that would pass without trouble ? While Opposition parties had boycotted the formal (highly Hinduised) inauguration of the building on 28 May 2023, the start of work in it would bring all parties together by delivering a BJP-led Bill. In his inaugural speech in the new Parliament, prefacing the introduction of the Women’s Reservation Bill, Modi began by reminding everyone that it was an auspicious occasion—it was both Ganesh Chaturthi and the Jain Samvatsari (Lok Sabha 2023 : 6–7). To inaugurate the new building, a Special Parliament session was called from 18 to 22 September via Lok Sabha Bulletin II Nos. 7340–7343, published on 2 September 2023. But no clear information on the business of Parliament was made available to the members.