“Delimitation Will Be Political Demonetisation, Don’t Do It”: Shashi Tharoor

New Delhi: “Don’t do it”, was the blunt message of Congress MP from Kerala Shashi Tharoor to Modi govt, amid a debate over delimitation, an exercise which will redraw parliamentary and Assembly constituencies.

The Congress MP referenced the 2016 demonetisation move as a cautionary tale, urging the BJP-led government at the Centre to give the delimitation exercise a rethink.

“What happens to cooperative federalism? You have proposed delimitation with the same haste that you did with demonetisation… Unfortunately, we know what damage it did. Delimitation will turn out to be political demonetisation. Don’t do it,” Tharoor said.

The Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill to tweak the women’s quota law was introduced in Lok Sabha on Thursday after a division of votes. Two ordinary bills — the Delimitation Bill and the Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill to implement the proposed amended women’s quota law in Union territories of Delhi, Puducherry and Jammu and Kashmir — were also introduced in the House.

“Today we stand at a threshold where there is near unanimous political consensus in favour of women’s reservation. Every major party realises that the time for tokenism is over and the era of collective partnership must begin and yet I am finding myself deeply perturbed by the legislative exercise before us,” he said.

“The PM shares that the government has brought nari shakti – a gift of justice, but he has wrapped it in barbed wire tethering the implementation of women’s reservation to the expansion of parliament to numbers from 2011 census and an exercise of delimitation,” the MP said.

Women’s reservation, he said, is ready for harvest and can and should be implemented immediately based on existing parliamentary strength.

“Why Mr Speaker, why must we entangle a moral imperative with a demographic minefield. Women’s reservation is ready for harvest… To link it to delimitation is to hold the aspirations of Indian women hostage to one of the most contentious and complex administrative exercises in our nation’s history,” he said.

He also said Congress supports giving women their reservation in Parliament and state assemblies.

“Any delimitation exercise is fraught with complications that could tear at the very fabric of our federalism. There should be an extensive discussion on the delimitation process. It cannot be conducted in haste. Pass the women’s reservation bill today, we will support it. As for delimitation, let us defer it. Give women their reservation… please consider the larger interest of the country,” he urged the government.

Tharoor cautioned against the exercise, saying it could create imbalances between states that have controlled population growth and those that have not.

“We must be candid about what the implications of the delimitation are… Delimitation requires deliberation. There are three major faultlines: the balance between small and big states. Then, the balance between states like Tamil Nadu and Kerala, which have implemented the national goals of population goals. And states in the north which have not. In delimitation, states which have failed to control population will be rewarded with greater political weight,” Tharoor said.