[ Tadak Nalo ]
On 16 April, 2026, much like the infamous ‘demonetisation’, the Narendra Modi government proposed a sudden special parliamentary session -this time with the ridiculous and dangerous delimitation bill, hidden behind the curtain of the women’s reservation bill. That means that the real objective was the delimitation bill, but presented along with and as the women’s reservation bill.
Anybody voting against the proposal would be declared anti-women, but it is beyond anybody’s imagination to agree to the proposed delimitation bill,unless he/she has no conscience with respect to the overall welfare of the country, but is only and only concerned with political advantages at the cost of destruction of the nation. In short, a usual masterstroke by the modern Mohammad Bin Tughlaq (Chaiwala), to bring illogical, nonsensical and destructive changes without considering the devastation these changes are capable of.
The women’s reservation bill or the ‘Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam’ and titled ‘The Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty Eighth Amendment Bill), 2023.giving 33% reservation to women in the Lok Sabha and the members of legislative assemblies of various states was introduced in Parliament on 19 September, 2023, passed by the Lok Sabha with 2/3rd majority on 20 September, 2023, passed by the Rajya Sabha with 2/3rd majority on 21 September, 2023 and then assented by the president of India on 28 September, 2023. The bill has been assented as an Act for 15 years and will come into effect after the 2026 delimitation process.
Therefore, the question: Is the women’s reservation bill defeated? Absolutely not. It will come into effect after the delimitation process, or it can be effective at the existing members of Parliament of the Lok Sabha and the members of Legislative Assemblies of various states. In fact, the 33% reservation should have been implemented in the 2024 Lok Sabha election itself and also in the subsequent state Assembly elections of various states.
The Women’s Reservation Act can still be implemented in the existing numbers of the Lok Sabha and members of Legislative Assemblies of the states without going for a fresh delimitation process.
The dubious ways in which the ‘delimitation bill’ or the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, 2026 (Delimitation Bills of 2026) was introduced along with the women’s reservation bill is a clear indication of the dangerous intention behind such a ridiculous attempt. What’s more alarming are the provisions of the delimitation bill.
# Firstly, the delimitation bill has been proposed without fresh census and was to be done with the obsolete 2011 census. Why can’t the delimitation process be based on the latest 2026 census? There is a notorious hidden agenda behind such initiatives.
# The delimitation bill proposes increment of the number of Lok Sabha seats from the existing 554 seats to 850 seats, with the mainland Hindi speaking states like UP, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan seeing their number of seats increased to almost double their existing seats (for example, the Lok Sabha seats of UP was to be increased from 80 seats to 140 seats), whereas the increment of seats for the southern states and Northeastern states are marginal and almost negligible. In short, in the proposed delimitation bill, the Chanakya Amit Shah and the master-stroke man Narendra Modi had carefully designed the elctoral map of India to eominate the electoral outcomes of the nation from the Hindi belt for the next 30 years, and depriving the southern and Northeastern states from representation.
# The south Indian states contribute around 35% of the GDP with only 18% population, and they have over decades focused on whatever was asked of them, like literacy, health and family planning. Instead of rewarding them, they are being punished by reducing their representations in the Parliament.
The tribal states of the Northeast (excluding Assam) do not even make 5% of the total population of the country, and worse, the population of Arunachal Pradesh only makes up to 0.0001% of the total population of the country.
Imagine a Parliament of 850 Lok Sabha members, where the entire tribal states of the Northeast (excluding Assam) not even making up 20 Lok Sabha members. We are seriously underrepresented. This is a major cause of concern. Already marginalised, our state will be even further underrepresented. If the present parameters of the delimitation process continue in the future, we tribals are staring at certain catastrophe.
All thanks to the opposition parties of the country, India’s democratic structure is still protected, even though it is fragile. In a democracy, we do not want a stronger government, we want a stronger opposition. The best thing that happened to India in 2024 is giving only 239 seats to the ruling BJP in the Lok Sabha. Imagine giving 400+ seats to the BJP. India would have been turned into Somalia with all the civil unrest, devastation and the onset of dictatorship in the country.
At present, the women’s reservation bill can still be implemented without mixing with the delimitation bill.
As far as the delimitation and allocation of seats are concerned, the delimitation process should be carried out only after the fresh 2026 census, and the parameters for the distribution of seats for different states shouldn’t be confined only to population, but other indexes like GDP, literacy, healthcare, sex ratio, marginalisation, etc. For Arunachal, our backwardness and marginalisation should be considered in increasing our representation in the Parliament. If population is the only parameter of consideration, then Arunachal will be further marginalised and underrepresented. (The contributor is the chairman of the Arunachal Frontier Tribal Front)
