The proposed delimitation of constituencies has thrown up a Catch-22 situation. Should each Lok Sabha and assembly segment in the country have an equal number of voters? Or, should each seat within a state have an equal number of voters? The logic of redrawing constituencies so that each vote has equal value is irresistible from the standpoint of democratic principles but is unjust from that of federalism.

The stance of the southern states is that population cannot serve as the sole criterion for the share of resources and political representation. Demographic performances must be given equal weightage. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin’s sarcastic jibe says it all: “Now I would urge newlyweds to immediately have babies and give them good Tamil names.”

He implied that, having successfully stabilised its population and achieved a total fertility rate (TFR, or the average number of children a woman will have in her lifetime) of 1.8, the state would be penalised with a reduced seat-share in the Lok Sabha.

Similar protests have emerged from other states of South India, all of which have achieved TFRs of 1.7 to 1.8, well below the replacement level. By contrast, the states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand, which already have a large population base, have TFRs that are above replacement level. The discrepancy in population between North and South is........

© Free Press Journal