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Taking a swipe at Narendra Modi over his speech in the Lok Sabha, the Congress said the prime minister addressed every matter other than the key issue of delimitation and showed “willful blindness” to the concerns of several states in the South, East, Northeast, and the North.
The Congress also claimed that the government’s “insidious attempt” to subvert the Constitution and hijack the system will undoubtedly face defeat in the Lok Sabha when the three bills to amend the women’s quota law and set up a delimitation commission are put to vote.
Congress general secretary in-charge communications, Jairam Ramesh, said that uncharacteristically, “the non-grihasthi prime minister” delivered only a 40-minute speech in the Lok Sabha.
“Characteristically, he addressed every matter other than the key issue that is actually at stake in the special session of Parliament – delimitation. He didn’t address a single concern raised around it,” Ramesh said.
The prime minister repeatedly called for bipartisanship and the unanimous passage of these bills but unfortunately, his government has done anything but inspire bipartisan confidence, Ramesh claimed.
“The prime minister claimed that the government met every party on this issue. But the truth is that it rejected repeated calls by the leader of opposition to have an all-party meeting after the conclusion of the election campaign in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal on April 29,” Ramesh said.
The government has not formally or informally consulted a single state government, even as it proceeds to undertake delimitation at both the Lok Sabha and the Assembly-level, he claimed.
“The government has refused to commit in writing any details on how the delimitation will proceed. It has instead introduced bills that threaten to drastically rewrite the composition of the Lok Sabha,” Ramesh said.
Ramesh said by labelling the grave issues raised by several sitting chief ministers and MPs as “technical bahanebaazi”, the prime minister has shown a willful blindness to the concerns of several states in the South, East, Northeast, and the North.
“The legitimate anxieties of the people in these regions have been waved in the most callous manner. The people of Tamil Nadu and West Bengal will undoubtedly respond to this insult at the ballot box later this month,” the Congress leader said.
“The prime minister also conveniently brought up his own caste background in his speech. But he stopped short of any engagement with the issue that the Opposition has consistently raised – in September 2023 and today.
“We must introduce a quota within quota for women from the Other Backward Classes. But the prime minister is willfully deaf to this demand, even as he flaunts his identity for political expediency,” Ramesh said.
The Congress leader said the prime minister also acknowledged implicitly the political consciousness that has seeped into women across the country due to the reservation for women in the local bodies.
The Congress leader said the prime minister also acknowledged implicitly the political consciousness that has seeped into women across the country due to the reservation for women in the local bodies.
