‘Political demonetisation — don't do it’: Shashi Tharoor tears into govt over Delimitation Bill

Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Friday said delimitation would amount to “political demonetisation,” criticising the government for linking women’s reservation with the expansion of Parliament.

Speaking during the Lok Sabha debate on three bills, including amendments to the women’s quota law and the proposal to set up a delimitation commission, he said tying women’s reservation to delimitation was effectively holding the aspirations of Indian women hostage to one of the most complex and contentious administrative exercises in India’s history.

Here are the top ten quotes by Shashi Tharoor in Lok Sabha today:

1. Tharoor said, “Delimitation is not a mere bureaucratic rearranging of maps,but it is a profound shift in political power that is intended. linking women's reservation to it effectively holds the aspiration of indian women hostage to one of the most contentious political exercises in our history. Such an exercise carries the risk that it can strain the very fabric of our federalism.”
2. "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 prime minister says he has brought 'nari shakti' the 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 the 2011 census and an exercise of delimitation... Why must we entangle a moral imperative with a demographic minefield, he asked.
  
  

• Tharoor pointed out at least 3 major faultlines in the country, saying the first one is “the balance between small states and big states”, and second as the balance between states (like Tamil Nadu and Kerala), which have diligently implemented national goals of population control and inclusive human development, with those states mainly in the north that have not.
• Congress leader said that yet in future, delimitation, states that have failed to curb population would be rewarded with greater political weight, and we must ask if this is the message we would like to send -that the governance excellence leads to political errands. The third flaw flagged by Tharoor was the balance between the states that “have been the engines of our economy, contributing more to the national exchequer than the recipients, than those who are net recipients of central funds.”
  
  

• Tharoor said, “The delimitation based purely on population would further marginalise the voices of the states that provide the lion's share of resources that keep our union afloat.”
• We risk creating a terrain of demographic majority where a handful of large, poor states could determine the fate of the entire country, leaving smaller states and those with distinct language and cultural identities and economic contributions feeling like bystanders in their own country, he added.
• Noting the essence of the Constitution, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor said, “What happened to cooperative federalism? You proposed delimitation with such haste, with the same haste, that you showed on demonetization, and unfortunately, we all know what that damage did to the country. Delimitation will turn out to be political demonetization. Don't do it.”
  
  

• 8. There is a need for extensive consultation with all political parties and civil society. This process cannot be carried out in haste, nor should it be used as a pretext for women’s representation, Tharoor said.
• Tharoor said, “is prakriya ko jaldbazi mein nhi kiya ja sakta aur na hi ise mahilao ke pratinidhitva ke bahane ke roop mein istemaal karana chahiye, )This process cannot be done in haste, nor should it be used as an excuse in the name of women’s representation.) I do not understand why the government is seeking to redraw the country’s broader political map without adequate discussion and wide-ranging consultation.

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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.

(With inputs from agencies)