‘Gift wrapped in barbed wire’: Tharoor slams Centre for linking women’s quota with delimitation bill | India News
New Delhi: Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor Friday called the proposed restriction exercise “political demonetisation” and criticized the Center for linking implementation of women’s reservation with expansion of Parliament and redrawing of constituencies based on census.Participating in the Lok Sabha debate on three bills related to amendments to the Women’s Protection Act and the constitution of a Limitation Commission, Tharoor said the government had unnecessarily linked a widely supported reform to a highly contentious political process.Tharoor said, “Restrictions will turn into political demonetisation. Don’t do it.”He said there was almost unanimous political support among parties for women’s reservation and argued that the measure should be implemented immediately without relying on restrictions.“Today we stand at a threshold where there is an almost unanimous political consensus in favor of women’s protection. Every major party realizes that the time of tokenism is over and the era of collective partnership must begin and yet I feel deeply disturbed by the legislative exercise before us,” she said.Tharoor referred to the Prime Minister Narendra ModiIts comments supported women’s representation, but commented that the proposal was burdened with unnecessary conditions.“The prime minister says she has brought the gift of ‘women power’ justice but she has wrapped it in barbed wire, implementation of women’s reservation in expansion of parliament, numbers from 2011 census and delimitation exercise… Why should we attach a moral obligation to a demographic population,” asked.He said that women’s reservation is ready to be implemented based on the current parliamentary strength and there is no need to wait for the reorganization of constituencies in the future.“Women’s reservation, he said, is ready to harvest and can and should be implemented immediately on the basis of existing parliamentary power.”Warning of the wider political implications of redrawing constituencies, Tharoor said delimitation was not merely an administrative process, but a shift in the balance of political power.“Delimitation is not a mere bureaucratic redrawing of maps, it is a profound shift in political power that aims… The limitation exercise is fraught with complications that can tear at the very fabric of our federalism,” he said.He also criticized the speed at which the government is enacting the law, comparing it to the rapid rollout of demonetisation.“You proposed demarcation in such haste, the haste you showed in demonetisation. Unfortunately, we all know what damage the country has done. Restrictions will lead to political demonetisation. Don’t do it,” Tharoor said.Tharoor added that the opposition supported the policy of women’s reservation but believed that it should not be made dependent on the restrictive process in the future. She called for a broader dialogue with all political parties, saying both the representation and limitation of women have significant consequences for India’s electoral structure and federal balance.Debate followed the introduction of the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill aimed at amending the Women’s Quota Act in the Lok Sabha on Thursday following a split vote.Two additional General Bills, the Boundary Bill and the Union Territories Act (Amendment) Bill, were also introduced to facilitate the implementation of the proposed amended Women’s Quota Act in the Union Territories of Delhi, Puducherry and Jammu and Kashmir.
