Opposition doubts Govt intent

The Opposition parties, on Thursday, said the true intent of the bills brought by the government under the garb of implementing the women’s quota law is “mischievous” and it must be rejected in the present form. After a meeting of the India bloc leaders ahead of Parliament proceedings, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said the Opposition will not allow Parliament to be hijacked by flawed delimitation bills disguised as women’s reservation.

Besides Kharge, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, Congress general secretaries KC Venugopal and Jairam Ramesh, NCP(SP)’s Supriya Sule, DMK’s TR Baalu, TMC’s Sagarika Ghose, CPI(M)’s John Brittas, RSP’s NK Premchandaran, among others, attended the meeting in Kharge’s chamber in Parliament House complex.

In a stinging attack, Congress’s Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said the government began finishing off democracy by putting pressure on institutions, such as the Election Commission of India (EC) and the judiciary. Still, now, an “open attack” has been launched on democracy with the Constitution amendment bill. Participating in a debate in the Lok Sabha, Priyanka asked why the government can’t give 33 per cent reservation to women across the current 543 Lok Sabha seats.

She said the bill talks of increasing the number of Lok Sabha seats to up to 850 — to be done by a delimitation commission based on the 2011 Census data.

She said it was Rajiv Gandhi, as prime minister, who brought a bill for women’s reservation in panchayats and nagarpalikas, and that the bill was finally passed during the PV Narasimha Rao government of the Congress.

Taking a swipe at Modi, she said that, from the prime minister’s address, it seems the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is a champion of women’s reservation. “Any woman would tell you that women easily recognise those who try to mislead them,” she said and urged the BJP to be careful.

Congress leader Shashi Tharoor lashed out at the government for linking women’s reservation with delimitation, saying the Opposition will not allow “political demonetisation”. Speaking with reporters outside the Parliament House complex, Tharoor said the government can immediately implement women’s reservation by delinking it from delimitation, and that the Opposition would support the move.

Stalin burns copy of bill

Chennai: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin, on Thursday, burnt a copy of the delimitation bill and dubbed it a “black law”, alleging it seeks to make the Tamil people “refugees” in their own land. Stalin hoisted a black flag, burnt a copy of the delimitation bill circulated by the Union Government, and raised slogans condemning the move, hours before the Parliament was to sit for a special session.

The party also said that it will move the Supreme Court against the delimitation bill, if it is passed in the Parliament.

While releasing the DMK’s Assembly election campaign song, the party’s legal department Secretary, NR Elango, said that the legal option is always open.