What’s behind Centre’s perplexing outreach to Rahul on Delimitation Bill?

The Centre, on Wednesday (August 5), reached out to Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi, soliciting the Congress’s cooperation in passing the controversial Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill and Delimitation Bill but was told a firm “no”. The outreach came amid speculations that the Centre could seek an extension of the monsoon session to bulldoze the two Bills through Parliament.

The two Bills are not part of the listed legislative business of the government for the current session, which is scheduled to end on August 13, but have assumed a central role in the ruling BJP’s political agenda over the past few months.

The Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, which proposes to increase Lok Sabha’s strength from 543 MPs to 850 MPs and reserve one-third of these seats for women following a delimitation exercise, was first brought by the Centre to Lok Sabha during the extended budget session in April. However, with the Centre lacking the two-thirds majority required in Lok Sabha to pass a constitution amendment, the Bill was negated, leaving Narendra Modi red-faced over his first major legislative setback since assuming the Prime Minister’s office in 2014.

Outreach amid relentless protests

What makes Wednesday’s outreach to Rahul by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju, a first in the monsoon session, particularly perplexing is that it comes at a time when the Congress is leading the Opposition’s unrelenting protests in Parliament over the brutal police crackdown against student and youth agitators on July 20 and on allegations of donation theft at Ayodhya’s Ram Mandir.

Also read: Rijiju meets Rahul to break Parliament deadlock; Delimitation and FCRA bills discussed

The resulting logjam in parliamentary proceedings has derailed discussions on even legislative business that the government had listed for the monsoon session. With the exception of the hastily brought Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Amendment Bill, all other Bills passed amid the din in the current session have seen little or no discussion.

Additionally, despite the BJP orchestrating mass defections from parties like the AAP, Trinamool Congress and the Shiv Sena-UBT to the NDA coalition between May and July, the Centre is still far short of the two-thirds majority mark of 360 votes in Lok Sabha to ensure passage of the Constitution amendment. The DMK, which has 22 MPs in Lok Sabha and was the most vocal critic of delimitation in April, is being actively pursued for support by the BJP ever since its bitter falling out with the Congress. However, neither party chief MK Stalin nor any other leader of consequence has, so far, indicated reconsideration of the DMK’s position on the proposed laws.

As such, Rijiju’s effort to seek Rahul and the Congress’s cooperation has triggered a fresh wave of speculation in New Delhi on the BJP’s parliamentary strategy and political intent.

Congress stand clear

Though Rijiju did not explicitly mention to Rahul if the government had already decided to push the two Bills, sources said the ruling party was considering to extend the monsoon session to the week immediately following Independence Day (August 15). If the Centre chooses this path, the Lok Sabha Speaker and Rajya Sabha Chairman may not adjourn Parliament sine die on August 13 but announce the next sitting of their respective Houses either on August 16 or August 17. This would be a repeat of what the Centre had done in April when it extended the budget session for three additional sittings in an attempt to bulldoze the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill.

Also read: Shah responsible for violence against students; doesn't have courage to come to Parliament: Rahul

On his part, Rahul made it “absolutely clear” to Rijiju that neither his party nor its allies in the INDIA bloc would support any legislation that seeks to “fundamentally alter” the composition of Parliament and redraw Lok Sabha constituencies, Congress sources said. Rijiju is learnt to have impressed upon him the need to enact the two legislations for rolling out women’s reservation.

The Lok Sabha LoP and his sister, Wayanad MP Priyanka Gandhi, are said to have told the Parliamentary Affairs minister that the government must “stop making these excuses”. Instead, the Gandhi siblings reiterated that the Centre should bring a limited amendment to the 2023 law, passed unanimously by Parliament to introduce women’s reservation in Lok Sabha and state assemblies, to “reserve one-third seats for women within the existing Lok Sabha strength of 543 MPs” and said that the “Congress will support such a move”.

Opposition’s key demand

Rijiju, sources said, also appealed to Rahul for the Congress and the wider INDIA bloc’s cooperation in discussing the Foreign Contribution Regulation (Amendment) Bill, piloted by the Amit Shah-led Union home ministry, in Parliament. The INDIA bloc, as well as the DMK, has stridently opposed this legislation, calling it a government ploy to harass civil society organizations and minority institutions. Though listed as part of the legislative business for the monsoon session, the Bill is yet to be moved for consideration in either House of Parliament. Sources in the government said the Bill could be brought to Lok Sabha next week.

Rahul, however, has told Rijiju that to secure the cooperation of the Congress and other INDIA bloc parties for discussions on any legislation, the government must first concede to the Opposition’s twin demands for a statement in both Houses of Parliament by Shah on the July 20 police crackdown at student protestors and a detailed discussion on the alleged chanda chori (donation theft) at Ayodhya’s Ram Mandir.

Also read: 'Only Amit Shah's response in Parliament can break the deadlock'

The Centre, sources said, has rejected both these demands as it doesn’t wish to yield any more ground to the Opposition, having already been forced to accept the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on July 25 in the wake of the protests by students and the Opposition on the issue of recurring examination paper leaks.

Diverting attention?

A dominant view among the Congress, the Samajwadi Party (which is leading the INDIA bloc’s charge on the donation theft case), and the Left outfits is that this new push for Opposition’s cooperation for a discussion on the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill and the Delimitation Bill during an extended monsoon session, is the Centre ploy to divert both public attention and political rhetoric away from the chanda chori row and the student/GenZ unrest.

Sources said Rijiju and other troubleshooters from the BJP are likely to reach out to the Samajwadi Party, NCP-SP and other INDIA bloc constituents over the next few days in the hope that these parties would be more reasonable in negotiating with the Centre than the Congress. The SP, however, seems as determined as the Congress to not play ball with the Centre at this stage as it believes that any sign of its cooperation with the BJP would hurt its prospects in the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls due early next year.

Also read: Opposition pushback forces Centre to rethink Lok Sabha expansion, delimitation Bills

A section of leaders in the INDIA bloc also believes that the Centre, despite having boosted its strength in Parliament through defection over the last few months, is now on a sticky wicket given the visible public outrage against its crackdown on students. As such, the INDIA bloc must “intensify and diversify” its attacks at the Centre on issues of exam paper leaks, donation theft in Ayodhya, joblessness, rising prices and farmer distress “instead of extending a hand of support to a legislative agenda that is obviously aimed at electorally damaging the Opposition,” a senior INDIA bloc MP said.

What remains to be seen, of course, is whether seeing the INDIA bloc’s pitched resistance, the Centre puts off its agenda of restructuring the Lok Sabha and redrawing constituencies or, in the next two weeks, goes full throttle dismembering the Opposition coalition by poaching its gullible constituents, engineering further defections and luring MPs to cross vote.