Strip the briefings and the opposition's split is three honest positions that cannot merge.
The DMK's file is existential: proportional weight. Every seat the 850-member house adds in the north dilutes the south's share even with counts protected. Its ask — weighted formulas, Rajya Sabha rebalance — is a constitutional redesign.
The SP and RJD's file is the opposite: their states gain seats, their cadres know it, and their objection has quietly shrunk to the census timeline. They will take the map; they want the clock argued.
The Congress's file is both, which is neither. Its recovery runs through northern states that gain; its coalition runs through southern parties that lose relatively. Hence "process, not principle" — the only sentence that offends nobody and persuades nobody.
The women's-reservation chain tightens the trap: obstruct the committee and you delay the quota you promised. Five months of recorded clause-by-clause positions will document every seam. Committees don't just draft bills — they depose alliances. More on our politics desk.
