'In so-called Women's Bill, delimitation was hidden': Rahul Gandhi slams BJP on contentious bill

Top Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday said the opposition parties defeated the delimitation bill in the Parliament on Friday to defend the "idea of India," as he mounted an attack against the RSS-BJP.

Gandhi said the BJP-led government at the Centre brought a new bill on April 16, and said they were trying to pass the women's bill, which he said was adopted in 2023.

"In the so-called Women's Bill, delimitation was hidden. The idea was to reduce Tamil Nadu's representation in the Union of India... the delimitation move by BJP was to weaken the strength of southern states, small states, north eastern states," he alleged.

"We defeated in Parliament, a bill in which delimitation was hidden; we defeated it to defend the idea of India," he asserted.

Rahul added that India that is Bharat, is a union of states, and every single state should have a voice, be free to express itself, and protect its tradition.

At the rally he said "election is first an ideological battle, second, political fight; it is coercion versus consensus."

Slamming the BJP, Rahul Gandhi alleged that the saffron party wanted an India "where two or three companies control everything."

It wanted to "crush the ideas of rationalist leader EV Ramasamy 'Periyar', your model of government, and destroy the idea of social justice," he alleged and appealed to the people to "stop this assault by RSS-BJP."

He also lashed out at BJP ally AIADMK, saying it was not the same party that strived for the people of the state.

Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra too accused the Centre of conspiring to change the federal structure of the country in the garb of women's reservation, asserting that the defeat of its bill was a victory for the Constitution as well as opposition unity.

She also demanded that the government implement the Women's Reservation Act of 2023 on the current strength of the Lok Sabha.

"What happened yesterday was a big win for democracy. The conspiracy to change the federal structure (of the country) was defeated. It was a victory for the Constitution, opposition unity, and the country," the Congress general secretary said at a press conference.

"When Home Minister Amit Shah was speaking in the Lok Sabha on Friday, he said the Congress will not be able to sit on the treasury benches for years, which shows their mindset," Priyanka said.

"The whole conspiracy was to stay in power. They thought that if delimitation is not done now, it would not be done before 2029 to stay in power," she said.

This was being done by giving the excuse of women, she said, adding that the government would have done delimitation according to its own wishes.

"They thought that if the bill passes, it is fine. If it fails, we will project the opposition as anti-women and become the messiah of women.

(with PTI inputs)