Several activists, women's group leaders and former bureaucrats issued a public statement on Monday against the "opaque and non-consultative manner" in which the government was bringing bills on women's reservation and delimitation in the upcoming Parliament session.

The 262 signatories include transparency activist Anjali Bhardwaj, academics Zoya Hasan, Jayati Ghosh, Ayesha Kidwai and Santosh Mehrotra, CPI and National Federation of Indian Women leader Annie Raja, former diplomats Madhu Bhandari and Ashok Sharma, and former bureaucrats K.K. Jaswal, V. Ramani, M.G. Devasahayam, Harsh Mander and Ashish Joshi.

They said in a statement: "The laws will fundamentally re-shape India’s electoral democracy and impact every voter in the country. Given the far-reaching ramifications of these legislations, it is shocking that the citizens of the country have been kept completely in the dark about the contents of the bills, their implications and the rationale for bringing these constitutional and legislative amendments.

"Information about the proposed laws is reaching people only through media reports based on 'sources'. This is a flagrant violation of people's fundamental right to information and the principles laid out in the Pre-legislative Consultation Policy.

"The Pre-legislative Consultation Policy adopted by the Union government in 2014 mandates placing draft legislation in the public domain for at least 30 days, inviting public comments and making a summary of feedback/comments received available on the concerned ministry’s website prior to sending it for cabinet approval."

The statement added: "Given the tremendous impact the three legislations proposed to be taken up in the upcoming session of Parliament will have on our democracy, we demand that the government make the text of the draft bills public immediately and ensure wide dissemination through various modes, and in multiples languages; put the draft bills through robust public consultation, in line with the Pre-legislative Consultation Policy.

"While we wholeheartedly support reservation for women in legislature, and many of us have been part of campaigns demanding the same, we strongly oppose the secretive, nondemocratic manner in which the proposed legislations are being brought. It is a profound irony, and a grave disservice to the democratic process, to introduce legislation for women’s empowerment while simultaneously excluding women from the conversation," they said.