‘A gift wrapped in barbed wire’: Tharoor slams Center for linking women’s quota to delimitation bill

New Delhi: Senior Congress leaders Shashi Tharoor on Friday termed the proposed delimitation exercise as “political demonetisation” and criticized the Center for linking implementation of women’s reservation to expansion of Parliament and re-delimitation of constituencies based on census.Participating in a debate in the Lok Sabha on three bills related to the Women’s Reservation Act Amendment Act and the Constitution of the Delimitation Commission, Tharoor said the government was unnecessarily linking a widely supported reform with a highly contentious political process.“Delimitation will end up being political demonetisation. Don’t do it,” Tharoor said.He said parties were almost unanimous in supporting reservation for women and believed the measure should be implemented immediately and not rely on delimitation.“Today we stand on a threshold with near-unanimous support for women’s reservation. Every major party recognizes that the era of tokenism is over and the era of collective partnership must begin, but I find myself deeply disturbed by the legislative work before us,” he said.Tharoor mentions Prime Minister Narendra Modi‘s comments supported women’s representation but said the proposal came with unnecessary strings attached.“The Prime Minister said he had brought the gift of ‘nari shakti’ justice, but he wrapped it in barbed wire, tying the implementation of women’s reservation to the expansion of Parliament, the 2011 Census figures and the exercise of delimitation… Why must we tangle moral imperatives with a demographic minefield,” he asked.He said women’s reservation was ready to be implemented based on the current strength of the Assembly and there was no need to wait for future constituency reorganization.“Women’s reservation is ready for harvest and can and should be implemented immediately based on existing parliamentary strength,” he said.Tharoor warned that redrawing of constituencies would have wider political implications, saying delimitation was not just an administrative process but a shift in the balance of political power.“Demarcation is more than a bureaucratic rearrangement of maps, it is a profound shift in political power aimed at…any The demarcation exercise is fraught with complexities that threaten to undermine the very fabric of our federalism,” he said.He also criticized the speed with which the government pushed through the legislation, comparing it to the hasty rollout of demonetisation.“You are in such haste to propose demarcation, just like the haste you showed on demonetisation. Unfortunately, we all know how much damage this has done to the country. Delimitation will ultimately become political demonetisation. Don’t do this,” Tharoor said.Tharoor added that the opposition supports the principle of women’s reservation but believes it should not be made conditional on the future delimitation process. He called for wider consultations with all political parties and said women’s representation and constituencies had a significant impact on both India’s electoral structure and the federal balance.The debate comes after the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, which seeks to amend the women’s quota law, was introduced in the Lok Sabha on Thursday and the vote was divided.Two other general bills, namely the Delimitation Bill and the Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill, have also been introduced to facilitate implementation of the proposed amendments to the Women’s Quota Act in the Union Territory of Delhi, Puducherry, Jammu and Kashmir.