Gandhi Suggests Delimitation, Not Women's Reservation, is the Core Issue

Parliamentary Party Chairperson Sonia Gandhi Criticizes Government's Delimitation Plans

Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi has alleged that the government's move to bring bills in a special sitting of Parliament this week is motivated by a desire to derive political advantage and place the Opposition on the defensive. The special session is scheduled to begin on April 16 and will consider amendments to the 'Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam', more commonly known as the Women Reservation Act.

Gandhi claimed that the real issue with the government's move is delimitation, not women's reservation, and that the reported delimitation proposal is "extremely dangerous" and an "assault on the Constitution itself". She stressed that any delimitation involving an increase in the strength of the Lok Sabha must be politically, and not just arithmetically, equitable.

The opposition leader pointed out that Parliament passed the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, 2023 unanimously in September 2023 during a special session, which introduced Article 334-A in the Constitution mandating one-third reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabhas, scheduled to come into effect after the completion of the next Census and the Census-based delimitation process. However, Gandhi alleged that the government is now planning to amend Article 334-A to make women's reservation applicable from 2029 itself, and questioned why the Prime Minister had taken 30 months to make this U-turn.

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Comparison of Census Operations

Gandhi further noted that Census operations have begun only after an inexplicable delay of five years, and that the government's excuses for its tearing hurry to call this session and conduct delimitation are evidently hollow. She pointed out that Bihar and Telangana have carried out comprehensive caste surveys in their respective states, with the whole process not taking more than six months.

Gandhi alleged that the Prime Minister's real intention now is to further delay and derail the caste census, which was supposed to enumerate the population by caste in order to give greater meaning to social justice and empowerment. She argued that any delimitation must be preceded by a Census exercise as in the past, and that it must be politically, and not just arithmetically, equitable.

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The opposition leader pointed out that the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, 2023 provides for reservation within reservation, which means that the one-third of seats reserved for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes respectively will also be reserved for women. She argued that states that have been pioneers in family planning, and smaller states must not be placed at an absolute or relative disadvantage.

Gandhi concluded that there is simply no justification, except "narrative management during troubled times", for this tearing hurry to "bulldoze" extremely far-reaching changes to our polity. She argued that the process is deeply flawed and anti-democratic, and that the real issue is delimitation, not women's reservation.