Shashi Tharoor writes: The Trojan Horse of delimitation, and fundamental questions about the design of our democracy
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Context
In a recent editorial, Shashi Tharoor critiques the tying of the (Women's Reservation Act) to the upcoming national delimitation exercise. He argues that this linkage acts as a 'Trojan Horse' that threatens India's federal structure by politically penalizing southern states that successfully implemented population control measures. The author calls for deeper constitutional reforms, including restructuring the upper house and reconsidering the size of mega-states, to maintain a balanced democratic design.
UPSC Perspectives
Polity
The impending delimitation of constituencies, governed by of the Constitution, poses a severe challenge to India's asymmetric federalism. To prevent states with successful family planning from losing political power, the froze the allocation of seats based on the 1971 census until the first census after 2026. Tying the highly anticipated women's reservation to the lifting of this freeze creates a demographic divergence crisis, where populous northern states could dominate national politics and resource allocation. If a strict 'one person, one vote' metric is applied without safeguards, it risks alienating economically progressive states, thereby fracturing the federal equilibrium that holds the Union together. Aspirants must critically analyze how population-based representation conflicts with the principles of regional equity.
Governance
To resolve the tension between population growth and equal state representation, the article advocates for a paradigm shift in parliamentary design, specifically adopting degressive proportionality (where smaller units get a minimum threshold of representation). The author suggests transforming the into a genuine 'House of States' similar to the United States Senate, where every state enjoys equal representation regardless of its population size. Currently, India's upper house representation is also largely based on population, which fails to act as an effective federal check on the . A reformed upper house would ensure that smaller or less populous states are not politically steamrolled by demographic behemoths. Such institutional reforms are crucial for GS Paper 2 discussions on the efficacy of India's bicameral legislature and its evolution in the 21st century.
Governance
The sheer administrative and political weight of India's largest states often dwarfs that of many sovereign nations, leading to calls for territorial rationalization under of the Constitution. The article highlights that states like Uttar Pradesh possess disproportionate leverage in national politics while suffering from deficits in administrative efficiency due to their vast size. Historical precedents, such as the UP legislature's resolution during Mayawati's tenure to divide the state into four parts, underscore the ongoing demand for better decentralization. There is a compelling case for constituting a new to evaluate the bifurcation of unwieldy states to foster balanced regional development and tighter grassroots governance. UPSC questions frequently test the rationale behind creating smaller states and whether they genuinely translate to better economic and administrative outcomes.