Only a complete reorganisation of Indian States into 75 smaller States for administrative convenience would ensure that each vote has the same value and each State has the same heft, said Gautam R. Desiraju, Professor Emeritus, Indian Institute ofScience, in Chennai on Saturday.
Speaking at a discussion on his book Delimitation and States Reorganization: For a Better Democracy in Bharat, moderated by former Census Commissioner C. Chandramouli, Mr. Desiraju said the current Lok Sabha strength of 545 was inadequate, and the number should be close to 1,500 for better representation.
He highlighted the disparity in the value of votes across constituencies, citing a comparison between the Chennai Central and Bangalore North Lok Sabha seats as an example of imbalance. According to him, a nation state is a European concept, where the behaviour of the people flows from the Constitution, whereas a civilisational state is one in which the Constitution arises from the people.
He said that during pre-Independence period, the boundaries of various presidencies were drawn solely to serve colonial economic interests. Later, Bengali was made mandatory to enter government services, which led to linguistic divisions in the Bengal Presidency.
Referring to a pamphlet authored by B.R. Ambedkar in the 1950s, Mr. Desiraju said Ambedkar had opposed the linguistic reorganisation of States. He argued that the creation of smaller States was the only way to ensure parity in representation and better administration.
Published – July 06, 2025 12:51 am IST
