BJP calls opposition 'eve teasers', shifts attention from delimitation
Mail This Article
The BJP central leadership has asked BJP Keralam to aggressively spread the narrative that the Congress-led opposition, by defeating the Constitution (One Hundred and Thirty-first Amendment) Bill in Parliament, was in reality conspiring to fool women by delaying their reservation. The political objective is to sink the delimitation debate and foreground women's reservation.
BJP Keralam has already launched an aggressive campaign on Facebook under the hashtag ‘AntiWomanAlliance’, a title meant to rhyme with but disparage what the BJP calls the INDI Alliance.
The BJP Keralam Facebook page has self-made short videos of scores of Malayali women from various walks of life censuring the opposition parties for defeating the Constitution Amendment Bill. “It is not a mere Bill that you have blocked. It is a challenge thrown at each Indian woman” is the tagline of all these women voices, and near the tagline are the images of opposition leader Rahul Gandhi and Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.
All these female voices have three common themes. One, the opposition has betrayed women empowerment in the country. Two, the opposition will never be forgiven for this. Three, Modi is determined to work for women's empowerment, come what may.
There are also posts warning the Gen Z. “Dear Gen Z, remember this is not the first time Congress and its allies have been anti-women. It is a pattern,” the post says and has seemingly anti-women quotes of Lalu Prasad Yadav, Mulayam Singh Yadav and Akhilesh Yadav, all of them faces of Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA).
What has been completely ignored in this ‘Justice for Women’ campaign is the fallout of the proposed delimitation based on 2011 census. The Constitution Amendment Bill was introduced to amend certain sections of the Constitution to allow delimitation on the basis of the 2011 census and thereby speed up women's reservation.
The Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam Act, which was passed in 2023, said that the 33 per cent women's reservation would be implemented after the delimitation exercise that would be conducted on the basis of the 2026 census. The Centre said that the 131st Amendment to the Constitution was tabled to advance the implementation of women's reservation, arguing that a delimitation based on the 2027 census would further delay the realisation of women's reservation.
The Opposition, on the other hand, fears that a delimitation based on 2011 census would result in huge seat losses for southern states like Kerala that had done well to control their populations.
“Home minister Amit Shah himself had assured the House that there would be a uniform 50 per cent increase in seats. During the debate, he even offered to revise the Bill accordingly, and still the Opposition ganged up to defeat the Constitutional Amendment that would have introduced 33 per cent reservation for women in the 2029 Lok Sabha elections,” a senior BJP leader said.
But what prevented the government from including this 50 per cent clause in the Bill that was tabled, the leader was asked. “The opposition would still have come up with other excuses to block women's reservation,” the leader said, insisting on anonymity.
Influential women leaders like former DGP R Sreelekha have been asked to speak on the issue through their social media handles. “Amit Shah's proposal of a pro rata increase of 50 per cent seats was highly beneficial to states and yet the opposition came together to defeat it,” Sreelekha said.
In addition to the social media campaign, BJP Keralam will also organise ‘Progressive Women’ marches in all 30 organisational BJP districts in Kerala. Each district has been asked to ensure the participation of at least 2000 women in these marches. In addition, public meetings will be held in all 140 Assembly constituencies.
It has also been decided to move resolutions on women's reservation in local body councils, where the BJP has at least two members