Stalin at the driver’s seat of a political combat vehicle

Attended by four Chief Ministers - Stalin, Pinayari Vijayan (Kerala), Bhagant Mann (Punjab), Revanth Reddy (Telangana) - two Deputy Chief Minister D K Shiva Kumar (Karnataka) and Udhayanidhi Stalin (Tamil Nadu), the meeting exemplified a historic partnership aimed at fighting a larger battle to protect federalism and mother tongues.

The first such move in independent India, all the 14 parties that came together for the event gave a united call against penalizing States that performed well in controlling the population by adopting population as the criterion for delimiting the seats in Parliament.

Speaking at the meeting in Hotel ITC Grand Chola, Stalin, who favoured the setting up of an expert panel to draw up the political and action plan for ensuring ‘fair delimitation’ said: ‘The social justice that we have cherished and protected for ages will be compromised. The Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes will be affected in particular.’

‘We will fight with the determination that our representation should not decrease under any circumstances; we should not let it decrease. We will fight together until we achieve fair delimitation.’

He said India had different languages – races – religious beliefs – cultures – clothes – foods – customs and only if such States acted with autonomy could true federalism prevail. ‘We can achieve better development. Our country gained freedom only because people from all walks of life fought unitedly. Realising this, the geniuses who framed the Indian Constitution structured India as a federal union,’ he said.

Although the federal nature had been subjected to multiple tests at various times, democratic organisations and movements had protected it but the biggest test and danger had come now, he said, adding: ‘It is with this realisation that we have all gathered. For me, this day is going to be a very important day in the history of Indian democracy,’ he said.

We had to oppose the delimitation move strongly and firmly because States like ours that controlled population through various social initiatives and progressive welfare schemes would lose their parliamentary representation significantly. He told the leaders to be absolutely sure that "delimitation based on the current population cannot be accepted."

Every state represented at the meeting had shown significant progress through population control and by reducing the number of people's representatives, their voice would be muffled, he said and gave the example of Manipur that had been burning for two years with the voices for justice ignored because the State did not have the political strength to attract the attention of the country.

The reduction in the number of parliamentary seats or the reduction in representation would invariably lead to a reduction in political strength, he said. ‘It is not just about numbers – it is about our power, our rights, and the interests of our future,’ he said. With a reduction in representation, the states would have to struggle even to get the funds that they rightfully deserved and laws concerning the States would be enacted without their consent, Stalin said.

Decisions that affect our people would be made by those who did not know them and their needs; women would face setbacks in achieving their due share in power; students would lose out on important opportunities; farmers would be left behind without support and the culture, identity, and progress of States would be under great threat.

He made it clear that they were not against any measure that strengthened democratic representation but any measure should not affect the fair political representation of our states, too. ‘This protest is not against delimitation; I think everyone will agree that this protest is for fair delimitation,’ he said.