Why Amit Shah Did Not Formalise The “50% Assurance” |
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New Delhi: On April 17, Friday, as Southern states worried about the proposed delimitation, which would make all regions of India, minus those in six large Hindi-speaking states, subservient to them, Union home minister Amit Shah tried to build an alibi. Facing a determined opposition on the floor of the Lok Sabha, he issued a dare:
“If I return to the House in an hour with a revised bill carrying the Prime Minister’s 50% guarantee, will you back it? I have my official amendment ready. I will photocopy and circulate it, as we need to increase the seats by 50%. We have nothing to hide. We do not intend to do wrong. We will proceed.”
“If I return to the House in an hour with a revised bill carrying the Prime Minister’s 50% guarantee, will you back it? I have my official amendment ready. I will photocopy and circulate it, as we need to increase the seats by 50%. We have nothing to hide. We do not intend to do wrong. We will proceed.”
The opposition, in the form of Congress’s K.C. Venugopal, arose and asked why it was not being made a formal proposal, part of the troika of bills? Shah, mystifyingly, ended up not taking “the hour” he himself had offered, because the “photocopy” he brandished was legally impossible.
To understand this illusion, look at the 50% ‘logic’ the home minister had advanced on Thursday (April 16) to pacify regional allies like the Telugu Desam Party (TDP):
“Honourable Sir, they asked where the figure of 850 came from. I will explain. Imagine 100 seats. If we give a 33% reservation to mothers and increase the total by 50%, the seats become 150. If we take 33% of 150, 100 seats remain. When we increase the current 543 seats by........