How can our rulers think of shredding the existing federal units into pieces without the consent of the people who own them? Do they really hold the size of the provinces responsible for the collapse of the systems being practised for the past seven decades? How do other states manage their big and populous federal units? India has many big Union states with large populations and geographical territories. One of its states is of almost Pakistan’s numerical size, with sprawling and populous cities. Has it never encountered any challenge in self-rule? India has faced, and is still facing, separatist movements. However, it has successfully addressed such challenges.

The journalist and author, M.J. Akbar, in his “India: The Siege Within” of 1985, has thoroughly surveyed the internal threats to India’s unity, and given all credit to uninterrupted democratic, representative and inclusive governance working as a safety valve against political strains. Regular elections, emergence of new and alternate leadership, and recurring choice for changes in the political leadership provide an outlet for the accumulated public anger that undermines the federal spirit. Surely, it must be so. Jawaharlal Nehru guided his nation to the path of parliamentary and participatory democracy. We were unlucky.

Pandit Nehru died on 27 May 1964. By this time, democracy and the parliamentary form of governance with civilian supremacy over national institutions had taken strong roots. Lal Bahadur Shastri was democratically elected as his successor. Though short and diminutive, he was a strong-willed leader. He ordered his commanders to attack Pakistan in the 1965 war. We were confident that India would not cross the international border. He died in........

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