‘No one can call me anti-women’: Shashi Tharoor shares lighthearted exchange with Kiren Rijiju

NEW DELHI: Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Saturday shared a snippet of his conversation with parliamentary affairs minister Kiren Rijiju after the Lok Sabha was adjourned, saying the BJP leader agreed that no one could call Tharoor anti-women.Sharing a photo with Rijiju and other MPs on X, Tharoor wrote, “A little post-adjournment gathering of opposition MPs in the Lok Sabha with our charming parliamentary affairs minister. When Kiren Rijiju explained why he and his party were calling the opposition ‘mahila virodhi’, it was pointed out to him that no one could ever call me anti-women! He conceded the point.” He added that women are “by far the better half of the species, ‘Humans 2.0’, and deserve representation in parliament and in every institution.” At the same time, he cautioned against linking this to delimitation, saying, “Just don’t link their advancement to a mischievous and potentially dangerous delimitation that could devastate our democracy.”This follows a major setback for the government in the Lok Sabha on Friday. The Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, which proposed 33 per cent reservation for women in legislatures and an increase in Lok Sabha seats to 816, was defeated.The A total of 298 members voted in favour, while 230 voted against the bill. Out of 528 votes cast, the bill required 352 votes to secure the two-thirds majority needed for passage.The proposal aimed to increase Lok Sabha seats from 543 to 816 to implement women’s reservation ahead of the 2029 parliamentary elections, following a delimitation exercise based on the 2011 Census. It also planned to expand seats in state and Union Territory assemblies to accommodate the quota.