BJP lawmaker from Karnataka Tejasvi Surya on Thursday hit back at Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy over his proposal to link delimitation with GSDP, calling the idea unconstitutional.
The Special Parliament Session with three-day began on Thursday and a munch revolutionary legislative business in India's history is expected to be completed by April 18 (Saturday).
The government tabled the Women’s Reservation amendment Bill alongside the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, the Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill and the Delimitation Bill in the Lok Sabha.
Union Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal opened the debate. With the NDA holding 292 seats against the Opposition’s 233, the two-thirds majority requirement has put the numbers battle at the centre of the proceedings.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has pitched the move as a “historic step” for women’s empowerment, even as Opposition parties — while backing the quota — have united against the delimitation provisions.
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav said delimitation refers to redrawing the electoral map, alleging it is being used to carve out regions that serve specific political objectives for BJP.
He questioned how delimitation and women’s reservation could be implemented without a fresh census.
He further said the BJP will not succeed as women are unhappy over rising household expenses, including the increased cost of kitchen essentials and shortage of LPG cylinders. Yadav added that the “dice of BJP will not suffice.”
BJP leader Tejasvi Surya hit back at the Opposition over its arguments on delimitation, questioning the basis on which the exercise should be carried out. He said such reasoning could imply that the wealthy would have more voting power than the poor, remarking -- that “Mukesh Ambani would then have one lakh votes while others have just one”, and called the argument illogical.
Surya said delimitation should not be seen as a disadvantage for southern states, asserting that “the south could not have got a better deal than this” under the proposed framework.
Responding to Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi, Surya said delimitation is a constitutional mandate under Articles 81 and 82, which require balancing the ratio between population and seats as well as redrawing territorial constituencies.
He noted that with India’s population rising sharply since 1971, frozen seat counts have led to constituencies with vastly unequal populations, arguing that the exercise is necessary to reflect current realities by 2026.
Congress MP from Assam, Gaurav Gogoi said women’s reservation should be implemented on the current Lok Sabha strength of 543 and not be tied to delimitation.
He alleged the government is using the bills to push delimitation “through the backdoor”, accused it of not favouring a caste census, and said the move amounts to “bulldozing” delimitation in the name of women’s quota while creating obstacles to its actual implementation.
Gogoi accused the Modi government of using delimitation as a “weapon” and “bulldozing” it alongside the Women’s Reservation Bill.
Citing examples of Jammu and Kashmir and Assam, he alleged the process is being used to reshape political representation under the guise of implementing the quota.
No comments:
Post a Comment