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New Delhi: Questions arise about the most recent whim of the Narendra Modi government, of advancing the date for the implementation of the 128th Constitutional Amendment passed in 2023, ensuring that one-third of the seats in parliament and state legislatures will be reserved for women, after the first census after 2026 and delimitation that is to follow.

Why has the Modi government found it necessary to suddenly bring in women’s reservation now? Does it perhaps wish to change the lay of the land before the Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Punjab elections next year? Jairam Ramesh, Congress leader, Rajya Sabha MP and chairman of the party’s communications department, writes that the reservation of one-third seats in constituencies for general category, Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe communities, was to “become operational after the delimitation and census exercises would get completed.” 

Ramesh adds, “When the Nari Vandan Adhiniyam, 2023 was being debated, the Indian National Congress had demanded its immediate implementation from the 2024 Lok Sabha elections itself. The Modi Govt said this was not possible since both delimitation and the census had to necessarily be completed first. Now the U-turn Ustad has, after 30 months, suddenly changed his mind and wants to implement the reservations WITHOUT completing the delimitation and census operations.”

U-turns on their own policies, brought in by the same government and less than three years ago on a constitutional question, with grave repercussions on the polity have to be thought through. 

It is a question as to why the government cannot wait for delimitation to take place after the census and must hustle now. What has changed to suddenly?

2. What is the fear associated with the 2026 census? Is it because it is a caste census? 

The Tamil Nadu chief minister, M.K. Stalin, has welcomed women’s reservation, but urged caution on how delimitation is being sought now to be done in a hurry to perhaps make the political terrain easy for the BJP in state elections next year it has a lot at stake in. Stalin has said, “This step is not in line with The Constitution (128th Amendment) Bill, 2023 passed by the Union BJP Government and its earlier position to take up this historic initiative only after delimitation is carried out based on the Census conducted after 2026. This is most probably aimed at securing electoral gains in the forthcoming........

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