The justified relief over the defeat of the cynical move to disguise the distortion of India’s electoral map as women’s reservation carries a grave risk. We might forget that the deeper and more serious issues involved in this farcical debate cannot be postponed for long. Suhas Palshikar rightly names what is at stake — federalism, nationalism and the meaning of India (‘In BJP’s bills, federalism & nationalism, not nari shakti, were at stake’, IE, April 20).

Simply put, the Indian union needs a new compact. This may not be a classical Western-style federal compact enshrined in the Constitution. Unlike the “coming together” federations like the US, the Indian “union of states” is an outcome of “holding together” by political units within a nation. Yet, we have an unwritten compact implicit in our Constitution and the ideological consensus during our freedom struggle. This compact needs to be renewed.

Three principles inform this unwritten compact. The first and foremost principle is that of non-domination, which applies both to the relationship of the states of the union with the Centre and with one another. This central principle is tempered by two other overarching principles: Justice among and within the units of the Indian Union and context specificity, which respects local customs, practices and needs.

These three principles must shape the new compact across multiple domains. The aborted debate on delimitation touches only one domain, namely that of the distribution of political power across the states of the Indian Union. It must involve two other dimensions — sharing of economic resources and respecting cultural identity. We need a comprehensive one-time settlement that covers all these dimensions in a package deal. This would require what Shashi Tharoor aptly calls a “great........

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