Congress MP Shashi Tharoor said in the Lok Sabha on Friday that the government has hastily proposed delimitation or redrawing of constituencies, “the same haste it showed on demonetisation”.
“Unfortunately, we all know the damage it (demonetisation) has done to the country. Demarcation will turn into political demonization,” the Kerala MP said, referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government’s demonetisation of high-value notes in November 2016.
“Don’t do that,” Tharoor said.
He follows: Live updates from Parliament
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He also pointed out that the proposed laws simply talk about redistributing seats based on population. This means that southern states like Kerala can get a smaller share of seats because they control their own population, while Hindi belt states like UP and Bihar get more seats and a larger proportion of Parliament.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah said there will be a fixed increase of 50%, which means the proportional share will remain the same. Tharoor asked where it is written.
What the law says vs. Shah’s claim
“I want to say that the 50% formula that the Interior Minister suddenly came and presented to us yesterday, regarding the demarcation exercise, promising that no state will lose its current number of seats and increase the overall strength of the House of Representatives by 50% – this remains a risky political guarantee and not a legislative certainty,” he said.
He stressed that “the pledge fundamentally contradicts the current text of the legislation itself, which gives complete freedom to the government-appointed border demarcation committee, whose decisions cannot be appealed in court.”
“Since this formula (promised by Amit Shah) is not codified as a fixed constitutional or legislative guarantee, it can be easily discarded or changed by a simple parliamentary majority, providing no guarantee that it will survive beyond the very short term,” he said.
Tharoor also spoke against the idea of increasing seats under any circumstances.
“You don’t need to increase”
“[That] It would create the largest legislative body ever seen in any democracy in the world, resulting in an unworkable and unworkable body. He stressed that this is especially true in an era in which the government has systematically reduced the duration of Parliament sessions.
“While the 1st and 2nd Houses met for an average of 125 days in a year, the 16th and 17th Houses saw this number come down to just under 60 days,” Tharoor said.
“With such a restricted schedule, what will your job be, sir?” asked Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla. “The 850-member House will require at least doubling the time currently allocated to question hour, or zero hour, for the majority of MPs,” Tharoor added.
The previous day, Tharoor had criticized the Modi government for linking women’s reservations to border demarcation, saying the opposition would not allow “political demonization”.
“Class quota and total number of seats”
Speaking to reporters outside the Parliament complex on Thursday, the Thiruvananthapuram MP and former minister said: “We do not have any problem with reservation for women. They (the government) can do it immediately, but why is demarcation included, that is our question. Since there are many issues related to demarcation, a long discussion is needed, but they want it to end in 2-3 days; this is not possible.”
He added, “If the government wanted to reserve women, it could have done so in 2023,” noting that the quota had already been approved three years ago with the support of all parties.
“They have to do it now. We will support – no demarcation, only women’s reservation bill,” Tharoor said.
“The way you are demarcating the borders – the way you have done demonetisation without thinking. We don’t want this political demonetisation. There should be a big debate; what should the formula be, population alone cannot be the basis. Talk to the south, north-eastern and small states,” Tharoor said.
“There is a need for a detailed discussion on demarcation but for now there must be immediate implementation of women’s reservation. We will support it immediately,” he said.
The Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill to amend the Women’s Quota Act was introduced in the Lok Sabha on Thursday after division of votes. Two regular bills were also introduced in the House – the Delimitation Bill and the Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill to implement the proposed amended Women’s Quota Act in the Union Territories of Delhi, Puducherry and Jammu and Kashmir.
