Congress says,PM Modi did not address concerns related to delimitation

Party General Secretary Jairam Ramesh also said that the people of West Bengal and Tamil Nadu will also give their reply in the assembly elections this month.

Jairam Ramesh posted on ‘X’: “Unusually, the Prime Minister gave only a 40-minute speech in the Lok Sabha today. The striking thing is that he spoke on every issue except the main issue of delimitation in the special session of Parliament. He did not address even a single concern related to it.”

He said, “Prime Minister Modi repeatedly appealed to rise above party positions and pass these bills by consensus... The Prime Minister claimed that the government has held meetings with all sides on this issue. The truth is that the government rejected the opposition leaders’ repeated calls to convene an all-party meeting after the election campaigning ends in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal on 29 April.”

He claimed that the government has not consulted any state government, formally or informally, even as it is moving ahead with delimitation at both the Lok Sabha and state assembly levels.

Jairam Ramesh said, “The government has refused to provide any written details in the proposed law about how the delimitation will proceed, and instead has introduced bills that talk about massively restructuring the structure of the Lok Sabha.”

 According to him, Prime Minister Modi deliberately showed ignorance towards the concerns of many states in the South, East, Northeast, and North by dismissing the serious issues raised by several sitting Chief Ministers and Members of Parliament as ‘technical excuses’.

Jairam Ramesh said, “The legitimate concerns of the people in these regions have been ignored in an extremely cruel manner. The people of Tamil Nadu and West Bengal will undoubtedly reply to this insult through their votes at the end of this month.”

The Congress leader said, “In his speech today, the Prime Minister also casually mentioned his own caste background. However, he did not speak at all on the issue that the opposition has been consistently raising”.

“We should implement a quota within quota for women from Other Backward Classes (OBC). But the Prime Minister is deliberately deaf to this demand, even though he displays his own identity for political benefit”,he said.

He said, “The Prime Minister also indirectly acknowledged the political awareness that has arisen among women across the country due to reservation for women in local bodies. He omitted to mention that this revolution at the grassroots level became possible because of the vision of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.”

The Congress leader said, “Congress’s commitment to women’s interests cannot be challenged. But today the issue is not that. The issue is the Constitution of India. In this sinister attempt to destroy the Constitution and capture the system, the Modi government will undoubtedly face defeat in the Lok Sabha at 4 PM tomorrow evening. The division of votes when the bill was introduced was just a trailer.”

Prime Minister Modi, while assuring that there will be no change in the proportion of delimitation in the country, appealed on Thursday in the Lok Sabha to all political parties to pass the Constitution Amendment Bill related to the Women’s Reservation Act by consensus and said that those who oppose it will have to pay a heavy price for a long time.