At the all-party meeting convened by the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister on the question of the proposed delimitation, CPIML emphasised on retaining the existing political representation of the states to strengthen federalism and democracy.
The decadal census due in the year 2021 was deferred by the BJP government citing reasons of COVID and the consequent lockdown. Now, the union government has proposed a census by 2026 and subsequent delimitation of constituencies based on the population of each state.
The more developed states like Tamil Nadu where the population control measures were effectively and successfully administered will find a decrease in their proportional share in the parliament if population is taken as the only basis for delimitation. The states like Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra, Telangana, Odisha, West Bengal and Punjab effectively controlled the population growth owing to effective policy implementation, and now central government’s proposal of population based delimitation will place these states in an unfavourable situation as they are bound to lose several constituencies. This, in effect, will amount to truncate the voice of the people of these states in the Parliament and assemblies.
In an unevenly developed and diverse country like India, the norms of democracy require an equal political representation for all states and regions so that their voices can be heard. This is one of the fundamental aspects of democracy.
The proposed delimitation will not only alter the geographical boundaries of constituencies, but also the number of constituencies of each state. This will give the BJP an advantage to deny non-BJP ruled states their due share undermining federalism. The states like UP, MP, Bihar and Rajasthan which utterly failed to control the population and lagged behind developmental parameters are expected to get a larger share of the total number of constituencies.
If the existing strength of the Parliament was retained at 543, then Tamil Nadu is likely to lose eight seats proportionally while an increase to 848, according to the seating capacity of the new Parliament building, they are likely to gain only 10 instead of 22 seats proportionally, if the population criteria was followed. The total representation to the Parliament from southern states is bound to fall drastically, thereby drastically reducing the bargaining power and representation of the states which are mostly unfavourable to the ruling party BJP.
CPIML considers this proposal to be a conspiracy to suppress the voice and rights of the non-BJP ruled states which will destabilise the system of parliamentary democracy by denying the equal franchise harming federalism. The Home Minister Amit Shah must respond to the concerns of these states by declaring to retain the existing proportion of seats for each state.
The party has also criticised forcing three language formula on unwilling states, curtailing the powers of state government, over-centralisation of powers at the hands of the union government denying the due share of the states, terming as a design of a larger fascist project of establishing a corporate, communal, Manuvadi Hindu Rashtra. The CPIML appealed to the state Government of Tamil Nadu to pass a resolution in the forthcoming assembly session to restrain the central government from disturbing the status quo of 543 constituencies or from disturbing the proportion and ratio of existing share of seats of each state. The assembly resolution should also demand a constitutional guarantee to prevent any destabilisation of the existing balance.
- Tamil Nadu State Committee, CPI(ML) Liberation
