Both Houses of Parliament Thursday were marred by protests staged by the DMK over the delimitation issue, with the presiding officers calling their behaviour unbecoming of the dignity of Parliament. Lok Sabha was adjourned within two minutes after it met at 11 am, as DMK MPs came wearing identical T-shirts as a mark of protest against the proposed delimitation. Speaker Om Birla said they cannot come to the House wearing T-shirts and protest in ways that lower the dignity of the House, and adjourned Lok Sabha till noon. The House was adjourned once again at noon, within a minute, and Krishna Prasad Tenneti, who was in the chair, told DMK members they couldn’t come to the House "like this". He immediately adjourned the House till noon. Soon after the proceedings began on Thursday, Rajya Sabha was adjourned till noon by Chairperson Jagdeep Dhankhar. Dhankhar called for a meeting of floor leaders in his chamber at 11.30 am. He said, “I would share with the members what I have seen in the House a while ago.” The sitting was adjourned for the meeting just after the papers were laid on the table. Rajya Sabha met at noon, and then again at 12.15 pm after a quick adjournment, and was immediately adjourned till 2 pm. The DMK has been at the forefront of protests against delimitation. The delimitation is expected after 2026 following the decennial census — since the freeze on delimitation through a constitutional amendment last effected in 2001 expires in 2026 — unless the Parliament extends the freeze yet again by amending the Constitution. The Constitution calls for delimitation after every census to adjust the seats to the population to uphold the one person, one vote, and one value principle. If delimitation does take place, the proportion of seats held by South India would fall, and the biggest gainers would be states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, whose decadal rate of population growth has been higher than the South since the freeze was first effected in 1976, via the 1971 census, as per the then population figures. While Union Home Minister Amit Shah has said Tamil Nadu would not lose a single seat on a pro-rata basis — a statement which the DMK challenged the government to clarify — the regional party has made delimitation and the three-language formula in the National Education Policy a major issue in the state, which goes to the polls in 2026. "There is no rule. It was invented this morning. There is nothing about dress code. We have in the past seen parties shouting slogans, wearing T-shirts and coats, and coming to Parliament. The BJP has also protested inside Parliament in the past. But today when the Opposition protests, they are not able to take it," DMK leader K Kanimozhi told reporters outside Parliament.
