Over two days of a heated debate in the Lok Sabha over the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, which deepened the divide between the BJP and the Opposition, a lighter moment emerged during a post-adjournment interaction between Opposition MPs and the Parliamentary Affairs Minister.
In a post on X, Congress leader Shashi Tharoor shared a post-adjournment selfie with Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju. Tharoor quipped that when Rijiju explained why he was calling the Opposition “anti-women,” he was pointed out that no one could ever call him (Tharoor) anti-women.
“A little post-adjournment gathering of Opposition MPs in the Lok Sabha with our charming Parliamentary Affairs Minister. When @KirenRijiju explained why he & his party were calling the Opposition ‘mahila virodhi’, it was pointed out to him that no one could ever call me anti-women! He conceded the point…,” he wrote as the caption.
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Tharoor went on to praise women, calling them “the better half of the species.” He added that they deserve representation not only in Parliament but in every institution.
“Let’s face it, women are by far the better half of the species. They’re the improved models: Humans 2.0. They deserve representation in Parliament and in every institution.”
He also took a jibe at the government, saying that their advancement shouldn’t be linked with delimitation.
“Just don’t link their advancement to a mischievous and potentially dangerous Delimitation that could devastate our democracy,” Tharoor added.
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Tharoor criticizes Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill
The Kerala MP has been openly criticizing the bill, accusing the government of making haste, similar to what it did with demonetization.
In his speech in the Lok Sabha on Friday, Tharoor said that delimitation, or the redrawing of constituencies, has been proposed by the government in haste, “the same haste that you showed on demonetization.”
“And unfortunately, we all know what damage that (demonetization) did to the country. Delimitation will turn out to be political demonetization,” he said, adding, “Don’t do it.”
Tharoor, on several occasions over the last two days, called the linking of the Women’s Reservation Bill and the Delimitation exercise wrong.
“The government’s attempt to deliberately link both delimitation and women’s reservation is very wrong,” he said on Saturday.
The Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill to amend the women’s quota law was introduced in the Lok Sabha on Thursday. Two related bills — the Delimitation Bill and the Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill — to implement the proposed amended women’s quota law in the Union Territories of Delhi, Puducherry, and Jammu and Kashmir were also introduced in the House.
However, the bill did not pass in the Lok Sabha as it failed to cross the required majority mark. While 298 members voted in favour of the government, 230 members from the Opposition voted against the proposed law. The bill required a two-thirds majority, which is 352 votes.
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