Prime Minister Narendra Modi posted a request on social media on Friday in support of the amended Women’s Quota Bill which was scheduled to be put to a vote in the Lok Sabha later in the day.
The BJP-led NDA government – which has linked quotas to the allegedly “rushed” delimitation process to increase and redraw Lok Sabha seats – does not have the two-thirds majority needed to pass the amendment bill on its own.
“Logical responses have been given to dispel misconceptions being spread. All concerns have been addressed,” PM Modi claimed in his X post.
The Congress-led opposition, and parties from southern states in particular, said the flawed and biased demarcation law was being passed “while the women’s quota is being used as a smokescreen.”
But the Prime Minister said in his post
The original quota bill has already been approved in Parliament in 2023, and was also supported by the opposition. But that was related to the upcoming census and border demarcation. The government now wants to change this text, and the South fears that simply demarcating the border on the basis of population will eventually reduce its share, if not immediately. The government promised a fixed increase of 50% without any change in shares. But this is not written in the law, the opposition says.
The Prime Minister kept his argument focused on the women’s quota part of the discussion: “Even after so many decades of independence, it is not right that Indian women should have such minimal representation in the decision-making process… Please, after due consideration and with full sensitivity, take a decision and vote in favor of women’s reservation.”
He added: “The eyes of millions of women in the country are focused on all of us, on our intentions, and on our decisions.”
He added in another post: “I would like to say to all members of Parliament – keeping in mind your mother, sister, daughter, wife, listen to your conscience. This is a great opportunity to serve the power of women in the country… Don’t deprive them of new opportunities.”
What Open argued
But Congress MP Shashi Tharoor clarified some outstanding questions in his speech in Lok Sabha earlier. He said the border demarcation was hastily proposed by the government, “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.
Read also | What is the G word at the heart of the fear of border demarcation? Gerrymandering, explained in the Indian context
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 opposed the idea of increasing seats under any circumstances, as it would mean less time for each MP to raise issues.
