The meeting also resolved to meet the Prime Minister during the Parliament session and hand over a letter to demand a fair delimitation with a view to protect federalism, democratic rights and political representation rights, Stalin told the Assembly.
Chennai: To take the slogan, ‘Tamil Nadu will fight, Tamil Nadu will win,’ to the next level for redeeming the rights of the State and also that of other affected States, all Members of Parliament from Tamil Nadu would be taken to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi for ensuring a fair delimitation, Chief Minister M K Stalin announced on Monday.
Apprising the members of the State Assembly on the Joint Action Committee (JAC) meeting of political leaders from various States that was held in Chennai on Saturday, the Chief Minister said the State’s initiative for creating awareness on delimitation had made an impact at the national level and thanked all the political parties in the State, including the prime opposition AIADMK, for standing by the government.
Conveying his gratitude on behalf of the people of Tamil Nadu to the various political parties of other States that comprised the JAC, through the Assembly, he said the first warning bells in the country were sounded by the State Assembly on February 14 through an unanimous resolution pointing out the looming threat to States that performed well in the nation’s population control programme in the form of reduced representation in Parliament.
Pointing out the danger of Tamil Nadu and some other States losing their democratic and fair political representation rights, he said the State took the first step and followed it up with by convening a meeting of all parties in the State to highlight the threat to India’s federal structure and south Indian States getting a short shrift if delimitation was carried out on the basis of population.
In that all-party meeting, a resolution was passed vehemently opposing the delimitation of Parliamentary constituencies and demanding the maintenance of status quo the structure of the constituencies for another 30 year. The Prime Minister should give an assurance on that in Parliament and an amendment to the Constitution should be brought to ensure it, he said.
It was also resolved that a Constitutional amendment should be brought in to hike the number of seats for Tamil Nadu and other South Indian states by maintaining the proportion of representation based on the 1971 population in the event of increasing the total number of seats in Parliament to ensure that delimitation did not affect the States.
The decision to form the JAC was taken to press for the legitimate demands of the State and also to enlighten the Union Government of the loss that the States would suffer due to the process and it was taken forward by convening the maiden meeting of the JAC on Saturday in Chennai, Stalin said,
Among the leaders who attended the meeting were Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy, Punjab Chief Minister Bagwant Mann and Karnataka deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar , while former Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik joined the proceedings through video conference, he said.
After detailed consultations, the meeting resolved to urge for transparency in the delimitation process by taking the States into confidence, to take the 1971 population census as the basis, extend the freeze on delimitation to another 25 years, not to penalize States that performed well in the population control mission, to bring in necessary Constitutional amendments and the States having representation in the JAC passing Assembly resolutions with regard to the issue.
The meeting also resolved to meet the Prime Minister during the Parliament session and hand over a letter to demand a fair delimitation with a view to protect federalism, democratic rights and political representation rights, Stalin told the Assembly.
