Women’s empowerment cannot be a Trojan horse for hurried delimitation

Ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, in September 2023, the Narendra Modi government convened a special session to inaugurate the new parliament building. The outcome was the 106th Amendment to the Constitution of India, which promised 33% reservation for women, but only after the completion of the Census and delimitation. The demand for immediate implementation of the new reservation system from the 2024 election itself went unheard.

Now, a week ahead of the Assembly polls in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal, the government has convened yet another special session of Parliament to amend the Constitution yet again to pass the same women's reservation legislation, delinking it from the Census.

The women's reservation idea had little to do with the Census. A demography-based reservation should reserve 48-50% seats for women. Delimitation, on the other hand, should factor in the latest Census data as an important component in a holistic framework that will uphold, and not undermine, India's federal character as a union of states.

Indeed, the 84th and 87th Constitutional Amendment Acts that froze the number of constituencies till 2026 specifically required the next round of delimitation to be based on the first Census happening after 2026. The Modi government has not conducted the 2021 Census to date. Certainly, this failure cannot be the ground for violating the express mandate of the Constitution and carrying out delimitation based on the 2011 Census.

The One Hundred and Thirty First Amendment Bill, now proposed by the government, makes room for a substantially increased size of Parliament. The reason for a hurried construction of a new Parliament building and its inauguration ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections now becomes clear. Intriguingly enough, the new Bill provides for nearly doubling the scale of representation from Union Territories — from 19 to 35. Is the Women's Reservation Bill then dropping a loaded hint towards the creation of more Union Territories, J&K style, that BJP circles in West Bengal, Bihar, and Telangana have long been interested in? Any such spread of overcentralisation through the proliferation of Union Territories will prove disastrous.

There is no need to rush through a contentious delimitation exercise without adequate consultation with all stakeholders, and consideration of all relevant points to strengthen India's unity as a ‘Union of States’. The states in South India have controlled their population and contribute enormously to the national exchequer. In per capita terms, this ratio is way above the average in the northern states. The southern states must not be penalised for their better performance in terms of population control or economic contribution. Likewise, delimitation must also take due note of the interests of the smaller states in the North-East and North-West of India.

Any hurried delimitation can deliver an ill-advised blow to India's fragile federal balance and retard the development of the sense of unity in diversity. It is ironic that just two days after paying tribute to Babasaheb Ambedkar on his 135th birth anniversary, the government plans to play such hasty games with Ambedkar's enduring contribution to the building and sustenance of modern India — the Constitution, which proclaims India as a sovereign, socialist, secular, democratic, republic, assuring the unity and integrity of the nation.

Women's reservation can and must be implemented immediately based on the existing strength of Parliament and Assemblies. The issue of women's empowerment must not be pitted against India’s federal balance. Immediate implementation of women's reservation followed by an early conclusion of caste-based Census and development of a national consensus over a fair delimitation based on the much-delayed Census — this must be the road map for our beleaguered republic at this critical juncture.

Dipankar Bhattacharya is General Secretary, Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) Liberation.

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.