New Delhi: The Lok Sabha today (April 17) saw heated exchanges between the opposition and treasury benches after Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi likened Prime Minister Narendra Modi to a “magician” who had been “caught” and brought the bills to increase the strength of the Lok Sabha in “panic” to change the electoral map of India and to send the message “again” that he is “pro-women.”Gandhi also called the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) “cowards” who were hiding behind “the people of India and the armed forces” leading to loud protests from the treasury benches.“The truth is that the magician has been caught. The magician of Balakot. The magician of demonetisation. The magician of Operation Sindoor has suddenly got caught,” said Gandhi in his remarks during the discussion on the bills seeking to increase the strength of the Lok Sabha to 850 to “operationalise” women’s reservation along with the accompanying bills on delimitation and union territories. As treasury benches erupted in protest, Gandhi said that the three bills-The Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, 2026; the Delimitation Bill, 2026 and the Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2026 had been brought as a panic reaction“BJP is not stupid, they knew this bill couldn’t have passed,” he said.“This was a panic reaction because the Prime Minister at any cost wanted to send out two messages. He wanted to change the electoral map of India and he needed to send this message again that he is pro-women. Why he is doing that I leave it to your imagination. But the powers that be know exactly why he is doing it,” he said.His speech was interrupted by treasury benches including by union parliamentary affairs minister Kiren Rijiju who accused Gandhi of using unparliamentary language.“What is he trying to prove by this kind of language against the prime minister of 140 crore people,” said Rijiju.Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla could then be heard saying “Yes, he cannot use this language, it will be removed from the record”.Defence minister Rajnath Singh then rose and said that the “people of the country have made him the Prime Minister, he is not insulting any individual by calling him a magician.” “He is insulting the Prime Minister of the country, Rahul Gandhi should apologise to the country.”As both the opposition and treasury benches erupted in protest, Gandhi said that the BJP should not “hide behind the armed forces and the people of India.”“There is a central confusion in the minds of the BJP and its leadership,” he said. “They think they are the people of India. You are not the people of India. They also think they are the armed forces. You are a political organisation. We are not attacking you, we are not attacking the people of India or the armed forces. Do not hide behind the people of India and the armed forces.”Earlier in his speech, Gandhi said that the “truth” is that the bills being brought are not about women empowerment as the BJP is claiming but about changing the electoral map of India and not giving representation to OBC, Dalit and Muslim women.“The government is telling the southern, northeastern, and smaller states that for the BJP to remain in power, ‘we are going to take away representation from you’,” he said.“What the government is doing is nothing short of an anti-national act. I want to assure my friends, brothers, and sisters across the country – southern states, smaller states, and northeastern states – do not worry. We are not going to allow them to attack the Union of India. You are equal participants in the Union of India. They will not dare to touch your representation in the Union of India,” he said.