PM Narendra Modi's government enters the Parliament's monsoon session, set to start on July 20, with stronger numbers than it had just three months ago, and an agenda that might again include constitutional amendments.
Recent defections from Opposition parties have improved the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance's arithmetic in Parliament, reportedly emboldening the government to pursue an agenda that includes the 130th Amendment Bill on the removal of PM, CMs and ministers if they are jailed for 30 days even on mere allegations.
And then there's the 131st Amendment Bill on delimitation and operationalisation of the already-passed 33% reservation for women in legislatures; this was defeated in the last session in April as the government lacked the required two-third majority.
In the background lies the larger ‘One Nation, One Election’ (ONOE) project, still under parliamentary scrutiny.
The main Opposition party Congress has sought to cast this, again, as a grave danger to the Constitution at large, and even to reservations for distressed classes such as Scheduled Castes (SCs).
On Saturday, Congress general secretary comms head Jairam Ramesh noted that the BJP was seeking to improve its constitutional arithmetic through defections.
But they're not going to get a two-thirds majority,” he claimed.
The purpose of crossing 400 seats was to be in a position to change the Constitution,” he said, recalling the the BJP's ‘Ab ki Baar, 400 Paar’ slogan in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, in which the BJP fell short of the majority mark of 272 on its own.
But, unlike ordinary legislation, constitutional amendments are governed by Article 368, where a higher threshold than mere majority determines success.
With the Lok Sabha's effective strength at 540 at present, an amendment requires not just the support of at least 271 members — a simple majority — but ‘yes’ votes from two-thirds of members present and voting.
If all 540 members vote, that translates to 360 votes.
Even if attendance drops, the threshold remains formidable.
