The presentation of The Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, accompanied by the Delimitation Bill and the Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill, in Parliament was, unsurprisingly, a stormy affair. Taken together, these legislative instruments seek to push through one-third reservation for women in legislatures — an issue that has support cutting across political lines — but by linking it to an expansion of Parliament that will be facilitated by a contentious delimitation exercise. What seems to have worried the Opposition is not just the unilateral manner in which the government has chosen to go about such a crucial transformation but also the lack of foolproof assurances against the potential consequences of the delimitation exercise. On Thursday, the prime minister attempted to allay fears, saying that delimitation would not adversely affect any state and, in a bid to project magnanimity, added that he would also offer a “blank cheque” for his opponents to take credit. There, evidently, were few takers for Narendra Modi’s blank cheque: a vote on the passage of the bill is expected to take place today evening.
The Opposition’s reservations merit scrutiny. First, having denied the Opposition’s request to grant women’s reservation in 2024, the government is now plotting to put it in place before 2029 — the year of the next general election. The delimitation exercise, the Opposition claims, would lead to the northern states — the Bharatiya Janata Party’s formidable hunting ground — garnering greater parliamentary representation than those from the South that have, ironically, taken great strides in population control. Interestingly, the Centre’s pledge of proportional representation allegedly does not find a place in the bill. The timing of this special parliamentary session to give legal teeth to women’s reservation-delimitation is
suspect too. Several states where Opposition parties are in power are in poll mode: the BJP is seeking to cash in on these issues electorally in these states. These fractious developments on a seemingly progressive measure sully the image of India as a federal polity. The Opposition’s lack of trust in Mr Modi’s government even on matters that it supports in principle is indisputable. The Centre, on its part, remains adamant about bulldozing its way through despite the fact that the BJP leads a coalition government. Consensus and consultation, the bricks that supported coalition edifices in the past, are expendable at present. That is a statement on both Mr Modi’s dispensation and its allies.