Kiren Rijiju claims Congress ‘somewhat accepted’ Shashi Tharoor as ‘anti-women’; jokes recalled

New Delhi: Union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Kieron Rijiju Shared with you the post-meeting exchange on Tuesday congress member of congress Shashi Tharoor Stepping up his attack on the opposition over the Women’s Reservation Amendment Bill, he claimed that even Tharoor “agreed” with his remarks that the Congress could be seen as anti-women.“We took a photo. Shashi Tharoor, when the parliament session was over, in the hall, he told me… But no woman will think Shashi Tharoor is against women. I said, yes, no one will call you a woman in opposition,” Rijiju said in an interview to ANI.“This is what he meant. Congress can be anti-women, but women will not see Shashi Tharoor as anti-women… He agrees to a certain extent,” he added.The minister also slammed the opposition parties for opposing the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, which seeks to reserve 33 per cent seats for women in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies in the 2029 Lok Sabha polls.“Who would have thought that someone would vote against women? We don’t have a two-thirds majority… but who would have thought in their dreams that Congress, TMC, Samajwadi Party would vote against women?” Rijiju said.He added that the opposition “will have to face the wrath of women” for opposing the bill and argued the issue should not be viewed through a political lens. Rijiju dismissed the opposition’s argument that the bill unfairly linked women’s reservation to delimitation.“They said the demarcation was linked… It is written in the 2023 law that the delimitation will be carried out after the 2026 census and then it will be implemented. Why was there no objection at that time?” he said.He also dismissed concerns over the impact on southern states, saying the government had clarified that the number of seats would be increased uniformly across states, with 33 per cent reserved for women.On the demand for reservation for women in the existing 543 seats in the Lok Sabha, Rijiju opined that the current system is outdated.“Seats are determined based on the population in 1971… some seats have 3 million or 4 million voters. Is this how a democracy is supposed to work?” he said, adding that India’s population-to-seat ratio was much higher than many other countries.On April 17, the opposition party opposed the Constitutional Amendment Bill in the People’s House. 298 members of the department voted in favor and 230 members voted against, causing the bill to fail.The government has since said it will not pursue two other related bills. The proposals seek to increase the number of seats in the Lok Sabha from 543 to 816, of which 33 per cent are reserved for women, to be delimited as per the 2011 census.