North to South, no bias: PM Modi’s guarantee on delimitation process

NEW DELHI, APR 16 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday assured that the delimitation process, which has been a long flashpoint between the ruling NDA and the Opposition parties, will not be biased or unfair. “I give guarantee no injustice will be done to any state, from East to West, North to South,” PM Modi said in Lok Sabha.

A special Parliament session started earlier in the day to debate on three bills that were introduced in Lok Sabha. These bills are the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, aimed at tweaking the women’s quota law, and the Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill and the Delimitation Bill, to implement the proposed women’s quota law in the Union Territories of Puducherry, Delhi and Jammu and Kashmir.

The session began with a fiery 40-minute debate between the NDA and the Opposition, after which the latter insisted on the division of votes before the introduction of the Constitutional (131st Amendment) Bill. In the end, the bill was introduced with as many as 251 members supporting it and 185 MPs voting against the same.

PM Modi also urged the Opposition MPs not to see the women’s quota bill from a political lens and cautioned that, in the past, those who had opposed the concept of women’s reservations, “the women of the country have not forgiven them”.

“I have come to appeal to you that do not see this from a political lens, this is a decision in the national interest,” the Prime Minister said, adding that the 33 per cent reservation is not a “gift” but a woman’s right.

Under the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, the Centre has proposed to increase the strength of Lok Sabha from 543 to 850 seats, with a total of 815 set aside for states and 35 for Union Territories. This will pave the way for the Delimitation Bill and the Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill to implement the women’s quota law. However, the southern states – all ruled by Opposition parties – have vehemently opposed it, arguing that the delimitation exercise would significantly advantage the Hindi heartland, BJP’s stronghold.

To break down in simple terms, delimitation is the process of redrawing constituencies to accurately capture the changes in population. Its primary objective is to ensure that each region and the issues of the residents are represented by leaders and put forth properly.

The South Chief Ministers – MK Stalin of Tamil Nadu, Pinarayi Vijayan of Kerala, Revanth Reddy of Telangana and Siddaramaiah of Karnataka – have called out the exercise to be unfair to their states that have effectively enacted population control steps. They, along with their INDIA bloc members, have argued that the delimitation is BJP’s political tool to ensure they have long-term electoral advantage.

Earlier in the day, Stalin kickstarted a statewide agitation by burning a copy of the delimitation bill and hoisting black flags.

-PTI