UNTHINKABLE ... ? It has happened .... the Women Quota and Delimitation Bills have been defeated in Lok Sabha

It was a calculated risk taken by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. 

The Modi Govt had tabled the bills related to Delimitation and Women Quota despite not having a two-thirds majority in both the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha.

The Bill (s) especially on women reservation was seen as a testament to Narendra Modi's 'Naya Bharat' (New India) vision --- defeated

 

The BJP leaders knew there would be serious opposition to Delimitation in Tamil Nadu. Yet they took the big risk. They might have been blinded by the need to counter Mamata Banerjee's immense 'popularity' with women voters. Thanks to her Lakhi Bhandar and other freebies.  

Now the issue of Delimitation has become a major political issue and could possibly help DMK stage a come back. 

Tamil Nadu goes to polls on April 29.

What will happen in West Bengal is anyone's guess.  

But the defeat of the Bills is certainly a 'setback' to the strategy of Team Modi-Shah. They, however, will now put the entire blame on the opposition. 

Amit Shah has made the political intent clear by saying from Triple Talaq to surgical strike and from Article 370 to Op Sindoor - the opposition parties and Congress have opposed everything.

Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi's Chanakya reference about Amit Shah would now sound like rubbing insults to injuries. 

Worse, thanks to the Lok Sabha debate, Rahul Gandhi on Friday (second day) of the Special session got a chance to call Narendra Modi - a 'magician' who has been 'caught'.  

Rahul Gandhi during the debate in Lok Sabha on Friday said -- the Prime Minister aimed to send two signals: 

-- first, to redraw India’s electoral landscape, 

and second, to reinforce his pro-women image. 

“Why he is doing that, I leave to your imagination,” Rahul remarked, before launching a pointed critique: 

“The magician has been caught — the magician of Balakot, the magician of demonetisation… suddenly caught.”

 

The Leader of the Opposition said: "...it is important that everyone understands. The BJP knew, they knew very clearly that this bill actually cannot be passed. They knew it. 


"They're not stupid. They knew every opposition person would oppose it. This bill cannot be passed. This was a panic reaction."   

Making things appear pretty bad for the ruling dispensation and especially for Modi; Rahul Gandhi left people guessing after mentioning in his speech the 'Number 16' riddle.

The social media quickly erupted in speculation over what exactly the Congress leader was hinting at. 

It could possibly be a 16-minute video expose to an international scandal to which scores of rich and the powerful have been linked to. 

"Yesterday, I was watching the Prime Minister speak. Low energy, broken. Nothing, nothing transmitting," Rahul Gandhi said.

The LoP then leader said he noticed that it was April 16.

"He [Modi] was not able to engage because clearly trying to pass this bill was a mistake, because everybody knew that wasn't going to pass panic reaction," he said.

"So I was watching him, and I noticed on my phone sixteenth of April. And I was like, 'My God, how crazy. That's the number. Sixteen! 

This sixteen number, this is the number. The whole answer to the riddle is in the number sixteen. Everything is in the number sixteen," he said.  

The Congress' official Twitter (X) handle dropped almost a clear hint. 

  

It said, "Sixteen sounds a lot like Epstein, doesn't it?"

All these may not form part of the best parliamentary practices; but this is perhaps the second time since 2019 Rahul has sought to embarrass PM Modi big time in the Lok Sabha.

Various allegatations made from time to time notwithstanding. 

In 2019 on the day No Trust motion was taken up against Modi 1.0 Govt; Rahul had surprised all and sundry by embracing Modi in Lok Sabha. 

The Prime Minister was furious about the gesture and later Rajnath Singh and the then Speaker Sumitra Mahajan had slammed Rahul's conduct in the House.

Dr Farooq Abdullah of National Conference had tried to defend Rahul and to that Sumitra Mahajan said - "All these cannot be done in the House ... Rahul unke ghar jae aur galey lagey (Rahul could go to PM's House and give him the bear hug)".

Late night replying to the marathon debate; PM Modi mimicked Rahul a number of times and sounded the displeasure. He said Rahul was actually behaving as a dynast with a sense of entitlement and he wanted me to 'get away from the PM's chair'.  

Importantly, Henceforth, essentially no one would trust the male-dominated political system. 

Everyone will be cynical as this for yet another time that such a fanfare around Women Quota has ended in a damp squib manner.

On multiple occasions — 1996, 1998, 1999 and 2008 and even 2010 — the Bill for Women Quota was brought in with much fanfare, but eventually the draft laws quietly lapsed.

Even the hyped slogan - Modi-hae-toh-Mumkin-Hae ... every goal or milestone can be achieved under PM Modi -- did not yield expected results.  

It's not without good reason, Supriya Sule (NCP) had in 2023 said -- the Women Reservation Bill is "post-dated cheque drawn from a crashing bank."

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