Amit Shah fires back at Akhilesh Yadav over women's quota, delimitation Bills: ‘Religion-based quota unconstitutional’

A face-off between the Central government and the Opposition parties erupted in the Lok Sabha over the introduction of women’s reservation and delimitation bills. Three Bills – the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill to tweak the women's quota law; the Delimitation Bill and the Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill to implement the proposed amended women's quota law in Union territories of Delhi, Puducherry and Jammu and Kashmir – were introduced in the House, setting off a sharp political exchange between the Centre and the Opposition.

The showdown unfolded after Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav questioned the Centre's urgency over the women's reservation Bill and demanded completion of the census before moving ahead with delimitation-related proposals. In response to Akhilesh Yadav, Amit Shah said the census had already started in the country.

The Samajwadi Party chief said, “Why are you in such a hurry. Why is the Centre rushing for women's reservation? Start with the census first. Samajwadi Party is for women's reservation, but is opposed to the approach via delimitation. As soon as the census is done, we will ask for the caste census, and then the reservation issue will come. Hence, you want to do dhokha with us [cheat us]”

“We support women quota in legislature; but why not hold census,” Akhilesh Yadav said.

Replying to Akhilesh Yadav, the Home Minister said, “Census 2027 is on; we have decided to go for caste enumeration,” asserting that a a reservation cannot be granted based on religion.

Amit Shah said, “Akhilesh Yadav asked why the census is not being conducted. I want to inform the entire country that the census process has already begun. The government has taken a decision to conduct a caste census, and the enumeration is being carried out along with caste data.”

“If it were up to the Samajwadi Party, they would even assign castes to households. Dharmendra Yadav spoke about giving reservations to Muslim women. This is unconstitutional. Reservation based on religion is unconstitutional,” he said.

Speaking in Lok Sabha on the three bills, Union Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal said, “The women’s reservation bill was passed in 2023, providing for implementing its provisions based on census after 2026 and delimitation. There will be an equal, 50 per cent increase in the strength of Lok Sabha members, and this will translate to 815 seats, of which 272 will be reserved for women, which comes to one-third of the strength of the House. There will be no loss to anyone (states), and they will retain their strength.”

(With agency inputs)