Member of Parliament and National Conference leader Aga Ruhullah Mehdi has said that the Constitution Amendment Bill could have greatly benefited the five Hindi-speaking states of the country if it had been passed. Speaking to reporters during his constituency visit, Mehdi said the Women’s Reservation Bill was unanimously passed in Parliament in 2023, but the opposition has defeated the bill that could have led to a flawed delimitation process under the guise of implementing the women’s quota bill.
Mehdi added, 'The Women's Reservation Bill is still alive… What has been defeated is a so-called delimitation bill that would have led to gerrymandering, as they did in Jammu and Kashmir.
They changed the boundaries of parliamentary constituencies as well as assembly segments along communal lines.”
“These states would have gotten 400 seats and they could have taken decisions for the entire country, just like what they did with Article 370. The article which required the assent of the Constituent Assembly was sidelined.
Similarly, this bill would have disenfranchised southern India, Bengal and other states in the Northeast,” he said.
On the Jammu and Kashmir government’s functioning, Mehdi said that the current dispensation, which came to power over the restoration of statehood, has stopped fighting for it.
Mehdi added, “People of Jammu and Kashmir voted the National Conference to power for the restoration of constitutional guarantees, including the return of Article 370 and 35A.
Even if we accept their argument of fighting for the achievable first, this government has discarded the fight for even statehood now.
This, to me, is an injustice to the mandate of the people of Jammu and Kashmir,” he added.
While 298 members voted in support of the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, 230 MPs voted against it. Out of the 528 members who voted, the Bill required 352 votes for a two-thirds majority.
Also read: Delhi Assembly one day session to discuss women's reservation
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