Synopsis of Debates on The Constitution (One Hundred And Thirty-First Amendment) Bill, 2026

The Delimitation Bill, 2026

On April 16 & 17, 2026

THE LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION (SHRI RAHUL GANDHI): Women are a central force, a driving force in our national imagination and perspective. If we do not have the courage to face fear, then the courage to go into darkness. This had been one of the biggest lessons in my life. It is a political lesson. I realize it was not only a political lesson, but more fundamentally, it was a religious lesson. Truth is painful sometimes.

There are certain truths that need to be told here today in this House. This is not a Women’s Bill. This has nothing to do with the empowerment of women. There is a Women’s Bill and it was passed in 2023 in this House. This is an attempt to change the electoral map of India, using and hiding behind India’s women. There is a central truth in India’s history, in India’s past and present. I have become more and more aware of this truth, and that is the brutal, cruel, unforgiving treatment of the OBC community, Dalit community, other communities, minorities and women. This is a historical fact. This need not be argued here. The point is whether the caste Census is going to be used for representation in Parliament and Vidhan Sabhas. The government is trying to rejig the Indian political map. This is nothing short of an anti-national act. The entire Opposition is going to defeat this attempt to attack the Nation State and deprive OBCs and Dalits of their rightful place in society.

The opposition is not going to allow the government to attack the Union of India. Real power, real strength always hides. It never shows itself. What has happened is that there is a partnership and then there is a hidden power. It is massive, extremely strong, but completely hidden. That force does not show itself, but it is there and knows the entire history. This Bill actually cannot be passed. This was a panic reaction because the Prime Minister at any cost needed to send two messages.

Number one is that he needed to change the electoral map of India. Number two is that he needed to send the message again that he is pro-women. There is a central confusion in the minds of the BJP and its leadership that they are the ‘people of India’. They are not the people of India. The people of India are something else. They also think that they are the Armed Forces. They are not the Armed Forces. We are not attacking the people of India. We are not attacking the Armed Forces of India. We are attacking the Government. The Government should not hide behind the people of India or behind the Armed Forces.

The Government is attempting to take away the constitutional rights and snatch that from the people of India. We are not going to allow that. We will defeat this Bill.

SHRI GAURAV GOGOI initiating said: I am speaking today in this special session on behalf of my Party to oppose the 131st Constitutional Amendment. We listened to Law Minister, and it seemed from his remarks as if women’s reservation were being discussed in this House for the very first time. Three years ago, the honorable Home Minister had also made similar remarks. Prior to 2023, various versions of women’s reservation Bills were introduced five times. This time, the Prime Minister has taken a decisive step, and it is being claimed that it will finally happen. Similar things were said back then, and we maintained the same stance as we hold today that the Congress Party supports women’s reservation, but we urge you to simplify it so that the reservation can be implemented as soon as the Bill is passed, applying to the current Lok Sabha strength of 543 seats. Do not link it with delimitation. We said this at that time, and we are saying it today. Our Congress Party leader in the Lok Sabha, also stated that we support women’s reservation but insisted that it should not be linked with delimitation.

Three years ago, Hon. Minister of Home Affairs himself assured the House by linking delimitation and the census with women’s reservation, promising that as soon as the next government took office, the census and delimitation would happen immediately. Even today, they claim the census work has begun. Why then does your own Bill state that the next census and delimitation exercise will take considerable amount of time? What are we to conclude from this? We can infer that you are not genuinely in favour of women’s reservation. If you want to bring it in 2029, then please do so, but the political maneuvering and symbolic politics evident in these three Bills clearly show that this is not a Bill to bring women’s reservation, but a backdoor attempt to carry out the country’s delimitation. The objective of the Government is purely political. In Clause 3 of this Bill, you have proposed an amendment to Article 81 of the Constitution, stating there should be 850 members. Where did this number come from? Who determined this figure? Was it fixed by the government? This is why we are opposing this Bill because the government is acting unilaterally. The Constitution stipulates that delimitation should occur after the census conducted in 2026. Today, by bypassing Article 81 of the Constitution, the government is granting itself the power to not wait for the census. You have arbitrarily decided that the number should be 850. Can the government do this independently without a census? We have seen how this government has turned delimitation into a tool for personal and low-level politics. I would like to cite the examples of two States to illustrate how delimitation is currently being enforced. One is Jammu & Kashmir, and the other is Assam. When the delimitation exercise was conducted in Jammu and Kashmir, the 2011 Census data was utilized. Conversely, when delimitation was carried out in Assam, it was based on the 2001 Census. The task of delimitation was executed by the Delimitation Commission in Jammu &Kashmir, and by the Election Commission in Assam. This demonstrates that delimitation is being employed to further consolidate political power. When States were created in our country, population size was not a determining factor. Our regions underwent a linguistic reorganization based on language. The tribes of the North East had made demands for the creation of separate States for themselves. Today, those very tribes are being persecuted for having made that demand—because, based on population figures, their numerical strength will never be sufficient to ensure that a representative from Nagaland can effectively raise their voice within the House.