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Suspense Continues Over Bills (Image Source: SansadTV)
New Delhi: Despite Prime Minister Narendra Modi's offer of a “blank cheque” to the opposition to claim credit for the Women’s Reservation Bill, the government could not impress or prevail upon the Opposition. The Prime Minister’s 40-minute speech, urging the Opposition not to politicise the Women Reservation Bill, resulted in frequent interruptions and heckling from the Opposition benches.
Though the Opposition repeatedly demanded the Prime Minister speak on the Delimitation Bill, he did not go into detail but sent a strong message that no state would be deprived and everything would be in the interest of the country.
However, later in the evening, in his intervention, Home Minister Amit Shah spoke in detail about how South India would benefit from the Delimitation exercise. He said at present South India is represented with 129 members and after Delimitation it would be increased to 195. Amit Shah gave a state-wise breakup of the increase.
The Home Minister also announced that the coming Census would include caste-wise OBC population. When asked why it was included in the Bill, Amit Shah said that as Home Minister he is guaranteeing the nation from Parliament.
The three-day special session on Women’s Reservation and Delimitation and Union Territories took off this morning, with strong Opposition from the INDIA bloc, who opposed the bills at the introductory level, resulting in division on the motion with 251 votes in favour of the bill and 185 against the bill.
In other words, the two-thirds majority requirement has put the numbers battle at the centre of proceedings. The debate would continue tomorrow also and the voting is scheduled to take place at 4 PM and in case of clearance it would go to the Rajya Sabha on Saturday.
Though the government is confident of pushing these three bills despite not having two-thirds majority, it kept the Opposition and media guessing. The real game plan and strategy of the government is yet to be known. On the other hand, the Opposition is also highly confident of the defeat of the bills. Congress, SP, Trinamool, DMK and Left constitute about 190.
It was Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal who initiated the debate and tried to allay the fears of southern states over the Delimitation Bill. Later another BJP member from Bengaluru, Tejasvi Surya, stated that there was a systematic and malicious campaign launched in South India by vested interests to mislead the people of South India. He said that delimitation is not a backdoor exercise but the government is purely following what the Constitution mandates.
From the Opposition, the debate was initiated by Congress deputy leader Gaurav Gogoi, who questioned the timing of the bills when some states are facing elections. He alleged that under the label of Women’s Reservation, the government wants to bring Delimitation from the backdoor. He said the government had violated norms of parliamentary democracy and cooperative federalism, which are part of the basic structure of the Constitution.
Priyanka Gandhi, who spoke in the evening, alleged that the main idea of the government to link Women’s Reservation with Delimitation was to avoid caste census in 2027. She said if the bill is passed, it will be the death of democracy in the country.
Akhilesh Yadav of SP said that they are for Women’s Reservation but OBC women should also be included. He also questioned why the government implemented it in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls when it was passed unanimously in 2023.
Other parties like Trinamool, DMK and Left parties strongly opposed the Delimitation Bill, calling it a destruction of federalism in the country. They said that the ‘real goal’ behind introducing Women’s Reservation is votes and to stay in power.
