Bengaluru, 20 April

Congress leader and former governor Margaret Alva has criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s address to the nation following the defeat of the delimitation-related bill in the Lok Sabha, saying the remarks lacked the “decorum expected of the office of the Prime Minister”.

Alva said the Prime Minister’s comments describing the Congress as “anti-national” and “anti-women” were inappropriate and went beyond the role of a constitutional head of government. “He is the Prime Minister of even those who did not vote for the BJP. His duty is to uphold the Constitution, not speak as a party leader,” she said, adding that opposition parties should not be labelled in such terms from the Prime Minister’s platform.

She also alleged that the special parliamentary session and related legislative moves were politically timed to influence public perception ahead of elections, claiming the objective was to project the Congress as opposed to women’s reservation and other key issues.

Responding to discussions around the Women’s Reservation Bill and its implementation timeline, Alva said delaying its enforcement would dilute its intent. “Why postpone it by 5 or 10 years? Many of us may not live to see it implemented,” she said, arguing that the law should come into effect immediately based on the current composition of Parliament.

On the issue of delimitation and seat allocation, she questioned the proposed redistribution of parliamentary constituencies, warning that it could disadvantage southern states. She said states with higher development indicators and tax contributions should not be penalised, and argued that regions lagging behind require support to catch up, but not at the cost of political representation of better-performing states.