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Wherever you go for votes, you will have to face the ire of women, Amit Shah warns Opposition
The Union Home Minister accused the Opposition of being against women’s reservation, and not on how it was implemented.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah speaking in the Lok Sabha. (Source: File)
MINUTES BEFORE The Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, aimed to increase Lok Sabha seats for fast-tracking implementation of women’s reservation, was put to vote in Lok Sabha on Friday, Union Home Minister Amit Shah warned the opposition parties against “obstructing” the legislation and said that women across the country are closely observing who stands in the way of their representation.
In his reply to the discussion on the Bill, which lasted over an hour, Shah defended the government’s intent on the legislation and said that the government was firmly committed to implementing women’s reservation, regardless of the Opposition.
Shah accused the Congress of reversing its stand on the women’s reservation issue, and alleged that the party is now hesitating with “kintu-parantu” arguments, claiming that it fears losing political ground as women voters strongly support Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “Wherever you go for votes, you will have to face the ire of women and be unable to find a way out,” he said. “You are throwing bones in the form of doubts in this Yagya of women’s reservation, they will never forgive you.”
The Union Home Minister accused the Opposition of being against women’s reservation, and not on how it was implemented.
During his reply, Shah also assured the House that the government was willing to include provisions related to a proportionate increase in the number of seats in each state by 50%. However, he refused the demand made by Congress’s K C Venugopal to de-link the delimitation process from women’s reservation.
Shah spelled out the Centre’s objectives on the three Bills under consideration. He said one objective was the time-bound implementation of these reforms aimed at women’s empowerment and reservation for the 2029 elections. The second objective, he said, is the implementation of the spirit of ‘One person, one vote, one value’ enshrined in the foundation of our democracy.
Speaking on representation of constituents, Shah said that some (Lok Sabha) seats have a voter population of 47 lakh while elsewhere it is 60,000. “There are many seats which, after being frozen in the 1970s until now, have got so big that an MP cannot even show face to their voters … given such a large population,” he said.
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He went on to list maintaining representation in the Lok Sabha in proportion to the population, administrative and geographic realities, urbanisation, increased connectivity as factors to be taken into account for delimitation.
There is a narrative being spread, he said, that the representation of southern states will be impacted. “This is not true,” he said. “In Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala, Telangana, in these five states, they have a strength of 129 seats out of 543, which is 23.76% …with a 50% rise in allocation of seats, the number of seats will rise to 195, and in 816 seats, their share will be 23.9%, which will be a marginal increase, hence I want to reiterate that no state will face a loss (of seats),” Shah said.
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