New Delhi

Congress MP Manish Tewari on Thursday said that the Women's Reservation Bill is actually the Delimitation Bill dressed up as the former, which will marginalise the peripheral states and urged the government to propose 1/3rd reservation for women in the Parliament out of the existing 543 seats.

"This is not a Women's Reservation Bill; this is a Delimitation Bill dressed up as a Women's Reservation Bill. That's the principal objection. I am the greatest supporter of women's rights. Government should delink it from the Delimitation and bring a proposal before the House that out of the existing 543 seats in the Parliament, 1/3rd (181 seats) should be reserved for women, and it should be operationalised by 2029," he said.

Speaking to ANI, Tewari said that when the process of Delimitation is linked to the Women's Reservation Bill, the peripheral States which implemented development initiatives will be at a disadvantage until the one person, one vote and one value formula under Article 81(2)(A) is revisited.

"When you link the Women's Reservation Bill with the process of Delimitation, you run into a complete minefield for the simple reason that till the time you do not revisit the enacting formula of Indian democracy, which is enshrined in Article 81(2)(A), which is one person, one vote and one value, the peripheral states and those states which have implemented developmental initiatives, especially population stabilisation since the 42nd Amendment in 1976, will be at a perpetual disadvantage. The question is not of proportion. The question is of absolute numbers," he said.

He further underlined that it is the responsibility of the Parliamentary leaders to maintain the federal balance, even when some sort of sacrifice is required by the sovereignty of India.

"I believe in the unity and integrity of India. I believe that the sovereignty of India requires even the utmost sacrifice by some people, but I also do believe that it is our responsibility as parliamentarians to balance the equity, to see that in a federal polity, while respecting the principle of one person, one vote, one value, the federal balance also gets maintained. And that federal balance is getting skewed," he said.

Tewari said that the utmost question is how the government is going to balance the equity of one person, one vote, one value and the federal balance into the polity.

"The peripheral States will be completely marginalised for no fault of theirs. That is the moot question. How are you going to balance the equities of one person, one vote, one value and the federal balance in our polity? That's something the government has not put their minds to?" he asked.

The government is planning to implement the women's reservation ahead of the 2029 General Elections by bringing in an amendment to the 2023 Act and a constitutional amendment to delink the delimitation process from the 2027 census.

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The government has proposed to increase the number of seats in the House to 850, with 815 seats proposed for the States and the remaining 35 for the Union Territories. The Lok Sabha has 543 seats at present.

The Centre has called a special sitting of Parliament starting today till April 18.