As a parting shot, the Modi government casually amended the Indian Constitution in 48 hours—from the introduction of the bill to its passage through Parliament. Over the past decade, we have seen parliamentary procedures being thrown out the window by successive governments—one worse than the other—to basically bulldoze bills. An institution that is supposed to represent the will of the people has been turned into a rubber stamp.

On Monday evening, the Cabinet approved an amendment to the Constitution which enables Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) of general category to get 10 per cent reservation in government jobs and for admissions in educational institutions, including aided and unaided private institutions.

On Tuesday noon, the last day of the winter session, the bill was circulated to Members of Parliament while simultaneously being introduced in the house. Till mid-day, the List of Business in Lok Sabha didn’t even list this as a bill. Instead, this grand constitutional amendment was part of the supplementary list.

On Tuesday evening, the bill was considered for five hours and passed by the lower house.

What’s more, there was a midnight order on Monday, January 7, to extend the Rajya Sabha’s session by a day to pass this bill through. On Wednesday noon, the bill was introduced in the upper house and on the same night, it was cleared with a majority of 165-7.

This sequence of events was so rapid that experts have been scrambling to find an instance where the Constitution has been amended so fast in the past. During the debate, MPs pointed out how parliamentary procedures were not being followed, how they should be given some time to consider the bill before passing it and that lawmaking should not be done with such haste. There were demands to send it to a Select Committee for further deliberation, but it was ignored. Forty-eight hours is all it took to amend the Constitution of India.

Almost all parties gave overwhelming support to this legislation. This shouldn’t come as a surprise because no political party would dare anger a significant chunk of their voters. But to use this as justification for the way in which this bill was cleared is incorrect. Lawmaking has to make sense, it needs to be deliberated properly and nuances need to be brought out not just in Parliament and its committees, but even in the public. The sudden Monday night announcement gave very little time for even the public to consider what its impact would be.

One simple question we need to ask is: if this is such an important, historic legislation, why wasn’t it brought at the beginning of the winter session instead of introducing it at the very end? Wouldn’t that have given more time for discussions and consultations? And, politically speaking, it might have even made strategic sense for the BJP and eclipsed the Opposition’s attack on the Rafale deal. Maybe, perhaps, it would have even punctured the Opposition’s claim that the BJP is bringing in this law only for electoral benefits—it would have completely changed the conversation during the whole session.

What makes this sequence of events even more bizarre is the fact that on Tuesday, January 8, a question was answered in Lok Sabha about this exact move. The Social Justice and Empowerment Ministry responded that there is no such proposal to introduce reservations for the poor.

What even.

Are we supposed to assume that till Monday, there was no proposal for a constitutional amendment and then, suddenly—quite literally in a matter of hours—a legislation was drafted? And, even after the announcement was made on Monday evening, the ministry which is supposed to handle matters of reservation did not hear about it—to give an accurate answer the very next day? Or is this a case of government machinery in disarray, where the concerned ministry has not been informed about what the top leadership is planning?

This also points to the fact that not only was there no public consultation for the proposal, but also no consultation was done within the government! Such an approach to lawmaking is extremely problematic as it leaves no time to consider the nuances of an issue.

Think about how this policy will be implemented. The bill says that the central government will notify the “economically weaker sections” of citizens on the basis of family income and other indicators of economic disadvantage.

This implies that the criterion as to who will be considered “economically weaker sections” can be changed by the central government from time to time. When it comes to caste reservations, since caste is permanent, once a person is provided with a certificate, it remains for a lifetime. But when it comes to economic criterion, that can very well change every year. A person who was in the EWS category might not be in it in the next year, probably after their economic condition strengthens.

So will there be a real-time monitoring committee which will track the income of citizens? Of whole families as a unit? Will the reservation be snatched away if a family starts earning more? If the EWS reservations would be given on the basis of self-declaration by a citizen, isn’t there a possibility that the whole process might be corrupted where anyone can produce a fake certificate to get the reservation benefits?

All these questions should have been answered before the bill’s passing, but they weren’t. And the simple reason for that is a lack of time. Also, evidently since the concerned ministry was kept in the dark too, they will now be scrambling to figure out the details of how this can be implemented. With only a few months remaining for the general elections, it’s unlikely that a structure can be put in place to ensure proper implementation of this quota.

By bulldozing this bill through Parliament, without much thought, the Modi government is also opening a Pandora’s box of future court battles. This move might not stand judicial scrutiny since it exceeds the 50 per cent overall limit for reservations set by the Supreme Court in the Indra Sawhney case. While speaking in the Rajya Sabha, Congress MP Kapil Sibal pointed out that this might even be held unconstitutional. Not just that, now that the limit has been breached, demands have already started pouring in to increase caste-based reservations beyond the 50 per cent limit all the way up to 90 per cent.

Whether or not this move would reap any electoral benefits for the BJP is uncertain. Already, there are rumblings that Dalits and OBCs may rally against the move. This also provides ammunition for the Opposition to point out that this desperate attempt is being made because the Modi government wasn’t able to fulfil one of its basic promises: more jobs. It might backfire. Badly.

Apart from the policy itself, what this hasty move did was open up a way for constitutional amendments to be bulldozed through Parliament without much scrutiny. This might be used as precedent to push more such policies through without proper public consultation or even internal deliberation, thus rendering the Parliament quite useless.