Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi on Monday said the Union government’s proposed legislative agenda for the special sitting of Parliament raises serious concerns over delimitation, which she termed “extremely dangerous” and “an assault on the Constitution itself”.
In an article published in The Hindu, Gandhi said that the central issue before Parliament is not women’s reservation but the implications of a delimitation exercise. She stressed that any increase in the strength of the Lok Sabha must be “politically, and not just arithmetically, equitable”.
She also alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s intent was to “delay and derail” the caste census.
Referring to the special session scheduled from April 16 to 18, Gandhi said the government was seeking to “bulldoze” legislation at a time when election campaigns in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal are at their peak.
“There can be only one reason for the extraordinary hurry, which is to derive political advantage and place the Opposition on the defensive,” she said, adding that the Prime Minister is “being economical with the truth”.
Highlighting the passage of the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, 2023, she noted that it mandates one-third reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and State Assemblies after the next Census and delimitation exercise.
“The Opposition had not asked for this condition,” she wrote, recalling that Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge had demanded implementation from the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
“Now, we are given to understand that Article 334-A will be amended to make women's reservation applicable from 2029 itself. Why did it take the Prime Minister 30 months to make his U-turn? And why can he not wait a few weeks to convene the special session?” she asked.
Gandhi said Opposition parties had written to the government thrice seeking an all-party meeting after April 29 to discuss the proposals, but the request was declined.
“Instead, the prime minister has resorted to writing op-eds, making appeals to political parties, and organising 'sammelans'. It is an underhand tactic that reflects the prime minister's one-upmanship and his 'my way or the highway' approach to decision-making,” she said.
She also pointed to delays in conducting the Census, stating that the decadal exercise due in 2021 had been postponed, affecting welfare delivery. “The last decadal Census was due in 2021. The Modi government kept postponing it. One consequence of this has been that over 10 crore people have been deprived of their legal entitlements under the National Food Security Act, 2013 that provides the basis for the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yoiana,” she said.
Noting that Census operations had begun after a delay of five years, she questioned the urgency of the current proposals. “It is being proudly claimed that it is a digital Census. Senior officials have themselves publicly declared that because of its digital nature, most of the population enumeration numbers will be available in 2027 itself. The government's excuses for its tearing hurry to call this session and conduct delimitation are evidently hollow,” she said.
On the caste census, she said the Prime Minister had earlier opposed it but later announced that Census 2027 would include caste enumeration. “This was also after the prime minister accused Congress leaders calling for a caste census as suffering from what he called 'an urban naxal mindset',” she wrote.
Citing State-level exercises, she added, “It is clear, therefore, that the propaganda that a caste census will delay the publication of the Census 2027 is just not true. In fact. the Prime Minister's real intention now is to further delay and derail the caste census.”
Gandhi reiterated that delimitation must follow a Census and ensure fairness among States. “States that have been pioneers in family planning, and smaller states must not be placed at an absolute or relative disadvantage,” she said, warning that a proportionate increase in seats could reduce their relative influence.
She also highlighted provisions for reservation within reservation under the 2023 law, noting that one-third of seats reserved for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes would also be reserved for women, and recalled demands for similar provisions for OBC women.
Calling for wider consultation, she said, “The Monsoon session of Parliament will begin in mid-July. The heavens will not fall if the government were to call an all-party meeting after April 29, to discuss its proposals with the Opposition, allowing time for a public debate and then have the Constitution Amendment Bills considered in the Monsoon session.”
“There is simply no justification, except 'narrative management during troubled times', for this tearing hurry to 'bulldoze' extremely far-reaching changes to our polity,” she said, adding, “The process is deeply flawed and anti-democratic. Reservation for women is not the issue here. That has already been settled. The real issue is delimitation which, based on the information unofficially available, is extremely dangerous and an assault on the Constitution itself.”
(With inputs from PTI)