AGENCIES

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday alleged that linking Bills related to women’s reservation and the proposed delimitation commission was a “conspiracy” to delete voters’ names from electoral rolls and implement the National Register of Citizens.

Addressing an election rally at Mathabhanga in Cooch Behar district, Banerjee said attempts were being made to “divide India” by linking the two issues, reports The Hindu online.

“Attempts are being made to divide India by linking women’s reservation and delimitation Bills. Connecting these two Bills is a conspiracy to delete voters’ names and implement NRC,” she said.

Union Ministers Arjun Ram Meghwal and Amit Shah moved to introduce three bills in Lok Sabha on Thursday to amend the women’s quota law and set up a delimitation commission, amid protests by the opposition, which termed the proposed legislations as “anti-constitutional”.

Meanwhile, senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor yesterday termed the proposed delimitation exercise “political demonetisation” and criticised the Centre for linking implementation of women’s reservation to the expansion of Parliament and constituency redrawing based on the Census.

Participating in a Lok Sabha debate on the three bills, Tharoor said the government had unnecessarily tied a widely supported reform to a highly contentious political process, reports TNN.

“Delimitation will turn out to be political demonetisation. Don’t do it,” Tharoor said.

He said there was near-unanimous political support across parties for women’s reservation and argued that the measure should be implemented immediately without being made dependent on delimitation.

Tharoor referred to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s remarks supporting women’s representation, but said the proposal had been burdened with unnecessary conditions.