The Parliament on Thursday witnessed a stormy session, as three-day special sitting started to discuss delimitation, census and women's quota. The opposition, during the proceedings in the Lok Sabha, vehemently criticised the delimitation bill and called it 'anti-constitutional', while supporting women's reservation.
Speaking in the House, Samajwadi Party MP Dharmendra Yadav said his party is protesting the three bills as delimitation is being de-linked from Census. Yadav, who represents the Azamgarh constituency, said women from backward classes and Muslims should be included in women's reservation law.
Backing Dhamendra Yadav, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav said he supports women quota in legislature but asked why census is not being conducted. Union Home Minister Amit Shah countered Akhilesh and said that Census 2027 is on and the government has decided to go for caste enumeration. He further asserted that reservation based on religion is 'unconstitutional'.
"The entire country is watching the proceedings of the Parliament. Akhilesh Yadav asked why are we not conducting census. I want to assure the entire nation the process to conduct census has started. On caste census, the government is already doing it... I want to assure that this will be a caste census," he said.
"What Dharmendra Yadav said unconstitutional. Our Constitution will never allow reservation based on religion. Any reservation to Muslims based on religion is unconstitutional... Samajwadi Party can allot all of their tickets to Muslims," the union home minister added.
The debate between them continued, with Akhilesh saying that Shah's remarks are against the democracy. "What the union home minister said, it is undemocratic. So, Muslim women are not included in half of our population?" the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister said.
The debate between them continued for before Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla intervened and saying both members of House will be allotted time to present their views.
Coming to the Parliament special sitting, Shah and Union Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal introduced three bills to amend the women's quota law and set up a delimitation commission, while the opposition protested. Though the opposition has asserted that it is not against women's reservation, it is against the delimitation provisions in the Constitution amendment bill in the Parliament.
ALSO READ - How states' seats tally will change in Lok Sabha after the Delimitation Bill | Explained
