New Delhi: Not too long ago, Shashi Tharoor seemed to be drifting away right — from Congress towards the BJP.
The Kerala MP’s differences with the Congress, particularly in 2025, stemmed from his praise for the Narendra Modi government’s foreign policy and security actions, including Operation Sindoor, as well as his divergence from party lines on some domestic issues.
The Congress leadership was hardly impressed by Tharoor’s views, and he was excluded from a number of campaigns.
Now, things have changed. On Friday, in Parliament, Tharoor delivered a strong message to the BJP government, advising it to avoid delimitation, which he described as ‘political demonetisation’.
“What happens to cooperative federalism? You have proposed delimitation with the same haste that you did with demonetisation… Unfortunately, we know what damage it did. Delimitation will turn out to be political demonetisation. Don’t do it,” Tharoor said on Friday, the second day of the debate over delimitation.
Tharoor was referring to the Modi government’s November 8, 2016 decision to withdraw Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 banknotes of the Mahatma Gandhi Series, and the issuance of new Rs 500 and Rs 2000 banknotes in exchange for the demonetised banknotes.
The Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill to tweak the women’s quota law was introduced in Lok Sabha on Thursday. Two ordinary bills — the Delimitation Bill and the Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill to implement the proposed amended women’s quota law in Union territories of Delhi, Puducherry and Jammu and Kashmir — were also introduced in the House.
“Today we stand at a threshold where there is near unanimous political consensus in favour of women’s reservation. Every major party realises that the time for tokenism is over and the era of collective partnership must begin and yet I am finding myself deeply perturbed by the legislative exercise before us,” the four-time MP from Thiruvananthapuram expressed.
“The PM shares that the government has brought nari shakti – a gift of justice, but he has wrapped it in barbed wire tethering the implementation of women’s reservation to the expansion of parliament to numbers from 2011 census and an exercise of delimitation,” Tharoor said.
He opined that women’s reservation is ready for harvest, and can and should be implemented immediately based on existing parliamentary strength.
“Why Mr Speaker, why must we entangle a moral imperative with a demographic minefield. Women’s reservation is ready for harvest… To link it to delimitation is to hold the aspirations of Indian women hostage to one of the most contentious and complex administrative exercises in our nation’s history,” he said.
Tharoor made the point that Congress the women’s quota bill to give them their reservation in Parliament and state assemblies.
“Any delimitation exercise is fraught with complications that could tear at the very fabric of our federalism. There should be an extensive discussion on the delimitation process. It cannot be conducted in haste. Pass the women’s reservation bill today, we will support it. As for delimitation, let us defer it. Give women their reservation… please consider the larger interest of the country,” Tharoor suggested.
“We must be candid about what the implications of the delimitation are… Delimitation requires deliberation. There are three major faultlines: the balance between small and big states. Then, the balance between states like Tamil Nadu and Kerala, which have implemented the national goals of population goals. And states in the north which have not. In delimitation, states which have failed to control population will be rewarded with greater political weight,” Tharoor stated.
