Delimitation, with a new federal compact in mind

The federal balance is slowly tilting away from equity considerations in favour of performance-based federal arrangements

- Yamini Aiyar

The defeat of the 131st Constitutional Amendment Bill in Parliament affords an opportunity to wrest the delimitation debate from narrow partisan concerns and open a wider conversation on India’s federal bargain.

First, it is essential to call out the bills for what they were. The women’s reservation debate was settled in 2023 with the passage of Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam Act. The Act, in its wisdom, linked women’s reservation to the census and subsequent delimitation — with no attendant rush to conduct the census. To implement women’s reservation, all that is needed is to delink women’s reservation from the census and delimitation, and operationalise reservation as a flat 33% of the current strength of the Lok Sabha and state legislatures. The goal was, perhaps, to make the country swallow delimitation without debate. It is this intent that has been defeated.