Kamal Ghorui
NEW DELHI: Union minister for parliamentary affairs Kiren Rijiju on Tuesday shared a post-session exchange with Congress MP Shashi Tharoor to sharpen his attack on the opposition over the defeat of the Women’s Reservation Amendment Bill, claiming even Tharoor “agreed” with his remark that the Congress could be seen as anti-women.“We took a picture. Shashi Tharoor, when the parliament session was over, in the hall, he told me… but no woman will consider Shashi Tharoor is opposed to women. I said, yes, no one will call you women’s opposition,” Rijiju said in an interview with ANI.“That was what he meant. That Congress can be anti-women, but women will not consider Shashi Tharoor as anti-women… he agreed in a way,” he added.The minister also hit out at opposition parties for opposing the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, which sought to provide 33% reservation for women in Parliament and state assemblies from the 2029 Lok Sabha polls.“Who would think that someone would vote against women? We don’t have a two-thirds majority… But who would have thought even in a dream that Congress, TMC, Samajwadi Party would vote against women?” Rijiju said.He added that opposition parties “will have to face the anger of women” for opposing the bill, arguing that the issue should not be viewed through a political lens. Rijiju rejected the opposition’s argument that the bill unfairly linked women’s reservation to delimitation.“They say delimitation was linked… It is written in the 2023 law that delimitation will take place after the 2026 census and it will be implemented. Why was it not opposed then?” he said.He also dismissed concerns about the impact on southern states, saying the government had clarified that seat numbers would increase uniformly across states, along with 33% reservation for women.On demands to implement women’s reservation within the existing strength of 543 Lok Sabha seats, Rijiju argued that the current system is outdated.“Seats were fixed on the basis of 1971 population… some seats have 30 lakh or 40 lakh voters. Is this how democracy should work?” he said, adding that population-to-seat ratios in India are far higher than in many other countries.Opposition parties had opposed the Constitution Amendment Bill in the Lok Sabha on April 17. In the division, 298 MPs voted in favour while 230 voted against, leading to its defeat.Following this, the government said it would not pursue two other linked bills. The proposals had aimed to increase the Lok Sabha’s strength from 543 to 816 seats, with 33% reservation for women, alongside delimitation based on the 2011 census.
