Real issue delimitation, not women’s reservation now, says Sonia Gandhi

New Delhi: Congress Parliamentary Party Chairperson and Rajya Sabha member Sonia Gandhi on Monday said the central concern surrounding the Centre’s decision to introduce Bills during a special session of Parliament on April 16 is delimitation, not women’s reservation, describing the process as “extremely dangerous” and terming it an “assault on the Constitution”.

She alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is seeking to “delay and derail” the caste census, suggesting that the timing and manner of the proposed legislative exercise point to deeper political motives.

Gandhi also criticised the government for “declining repeated requests” from opposition parties to convene an all-party meeting after the conclusion of Assembly elections in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal on April 29.

In an opinion article published in The Hindu, Gandhi wrote, “The Prime Minister is making appeals to Opposition parties to support Bills that the government wants to bulldoze in a special session of Parliament when the election campaign in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal will be at its peak. There can be only one reason for the extraordinary hurry, which is to derive political advantage and place the Opposition on the defensive.”

She further claimed that the Prime Minister is “as usual, being economical with the truth”, adding that the opposition had pressed for the implementation of women’s reservation from the 2024 Lok Sabha elections rather than linking it to the completion of the Census.

Referring to the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, 2023, she said, “The Parliament passed the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, 2023, unanimously in September 2023 during a special session. The Adhiniyam introduced Article 334-A in the Constitution, which mandated 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.”

“The Opposition had not asked for this condition. In fact, the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Shri Mallikarjun Kharge, had forcefully demanded that the reservation provision be implemented from the 2024 Lok Sabha elections itself. For reasons best known to itself, the government did not agree,” she said.

Gandhi said the opposition has now been given to understand that Article 334-A will be amended to make women’s reservation applicable from 2029 itself. Why did it take the Prime Minister 30 months to make his U-turn? And why can he not wait a few weeks to convene the special session?

She noted that several opposition leaders had written to the Centre on three occasions requesting an all-party meeting after the final phase of elections in West Bengal on April 29 to deliberate on the government’s proposals.

“But that perfectly reasonable request has been turned down. Instead, the Prime Minister has resorted to writing op-eds, making appeals to political parties, and organising sammelans. It is an underhand tactic that reflects the Prime Minister’s one-upmanship and his ‘my way or the highway’ approach to decision-making,” she added.

Calling for a more consultative approach, Gandhi cited the passage of the 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendment Bills in 1993, noting that they followed nearly five years of deliberations before introducing reservation for women in panchayats and municipalities.

She credited late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi for the initiative, stating, “Today, there are about 15 lakh elected women representatives in rural and urban local bodies, constituting over 40 per cent of the total. The Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, 2023, stands on the shoulders of this achievement.”

Gandhi also raised concerns over delays in the Census, noting that the decadal exercise due in 2021 had been postponed by the government. She said, “Over 10 crore people have been deprived of their legal entitlements under the National Food Security Act, 2013, which provides the basis for the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana. Census operations have begun only after an inexplicable delay of five years.”

Questioning the urgency around the proposed Census 2027 process, she remarked, “It is being proudly claimed that it is a digital Census. Senior officials have themselves publicly declared that because of its digital nature, most of the population enumeration numbers will be available in 2027. The government’s excuses for its tearing hurry to call this session and conduct delimitation are evidently hollow.”

She also referred to the Centre’s earlier stance on caste census, stating, “Almost exactly a year ago, the Prime Minister announced that the 2027 Census would also be a caste census. This was after filing affidavits in the Supreme Court and answering questions in Parliament, rejecting the idea of conducting a caste census. This was also after the Prime Minister accused Congress leaders calling for a caste census as suffering from what he called ‘an urban naxal mindset’. Be that as it may, Census 2027 is supposed to enumerate the population by caste in order to give greater meaning to social justice and empowerment.”

Citing examples from states, she pointed out that Bihar and Telangana had already conducted caste-based surveys within a span of six months, arguing that concerns over delays are unfounded.

“It is clear, therefore, that the propaganda that a caste census will delay the publication of the Census 2027 is just not true. In fact, the Prime Minister’s real intention now is to further delay and derail the caste census,” she said.

On the proposed special session beginning April 16, Gandhi said there has been “no official proposal shared with MPs on what exactly the government wants the session to consider”.

“It appears that some formula for delimitation is being suggested. Any delimitation must be preceded by a Census exercise, as in the past. And it goes without saying that any delimitation involving an increase in the strength of the Lok Sabha must be politically and not just arithmetically equitable. States that have been pioneers in family planning, and smaller States, must not be placed at an absolute or relative disadvantage. A proportionate increase may, in fact, result in the loss of relative influence because the difference in absolute numbers gets magnified.”

She further noted that the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, 2023, “provides for reservation within reservation”, ensuring that “one-third of seats reserved for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes are also reserved for women”.

“During the debate in September 2023, the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha had demanded that a similar reservation be also provided for women belonging to the Other Backward Classes (OBCs). Reservation for OBCs has already been provided for in higher education and government employment,” she said.

Gandhi concluded by stating that the monsoon session of Parliament is scheduled to begin in mid-July and that there is sufficient time for wider consultation.

“The heavens will not fall if the government were to call an all-party meeting after April 29, to discuss its proposals with the Opposition, allowing time for a public debate, and then have the Constitution Amendment Bills considered in the monsoon session,” she said.

“There is simply no justification, except narrative management during troubled times, for this tearing hurry to bulldoze extremely far-reaching changes to our polity. The process is deeply flawed and anti-democratic. Reservation for women is not the issue here. That has already been settled. The real issue is delimitation, which, based on the information unofficially available, is extremely dangerous and an assault on the Constitution itself,” she added.

IANS