The Thiruvananthapuram MP delivered the keynote address at the second edition of "Dakshin Dialogues", the annual flagship thought conclave of South First, in Bengaluru.
Thiruvananthapuram MP delivers the Dakshin Dialogues 2023 Shashi Tharoor delivers the Dakshin Dialogues 2023 keynote speech in Bengaluru on Saturday, 7 October, 2023. (South First)
Eminent parliamentarian and Congress Working Committee (CWC) member Shashi Tharoor called for a new southern consciousness in the face of the delimitation exercise scheduled for 2006.
He said this would not only reduce the number of seats from the southern states in Lok Sabha but also punish them in terms of revenue sharing and allocation of centrally sponsored schemes.
He was delivering the keynote address at the second edition of Dakshin Dialogues 2023, the annual flagship thought conclave of South First, in Bengaluru on Saturday, 7 October.
Tharoor stated categorically that the success of the South in population control must not be used as a tool to punish the people who have achieved growth by all parameters through sheer willpower and dedication.
“Where is the reward for our development?” asked Tharoor, quoting fellow Congress leader and Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, who delivered the inaugural address at the event before him.
He warned the Union government against making population the sole delimitation criterion for undertaking the exercise, as that would cause severe disfranchisement in the entire South.
The South has brought its population growth down to almost replacement levels, and it fears it will be politically disenfranchised in the face of the galloping numbers in the North, he said.
He also urged the Union government to use the interstate council and NITI Aayog platforms to discuss with the southern states the proposed moves, as the states currently fear that they would be punished with diminished political representation for performing better on practically all human development indices.
He also pointed out that the South performed better on all development indices by initiating welfare-driven, bottom-up governance and development models.
Tharoor said the current BJP-RSS dispensation at the Centre shows large-scale centralising tendencies, and the delimitation moves must be considered part of the divisive agenda.
He also accused the Union government of using it to tacitly control the country as a “Hindi rashtra” where parliamentarians from the so-called cow belt would decide everything with a brute majority, simply ignoring the concerns of the South.
Tharoor also gave a detailed account of the Union government’s stepmotherly attitude towards the southern states in crucial areas like tax money sharing, education, health, and infrastructure development.
“Fertility has allowed the population to shoot through the roof, but at the same time, no federal democracy can survive the perception that states would lose their political clout if they developed well when others would gain most seats in parliament as a reward for their failure. The Modi government has mistreated the South by directing the finance commission to use the 2011 census figures instead of the 1971 figures,” he said.
According to Tharoor, the 16th Finance Commission will likely worsen the North-South divide.
Suppose the next census occurred soon after the 2024 elections, as the Union home minister has indicated. In that case, it would still be worse for the South since population disparities have only worsened since 2011.
“For every rupee of tax contributed by Uttar Pradesh, the state receives ₹1.79, but for every ₹1 contributed by Karnataka, it receives only ₹0.47,” said Tharoor. “Karnataka meets 72 percent of its expenses from the state’s taxes. Bihar has to cover 23 percent. They get 77 percent of their state expenses from the Central budget.”
Stating that the South was being discriminated against metaphorically and literally, Tharoor urged the South Indian states to uphold the values of Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru — like plurality, inclusiveness, and equitability.
He warned the southern states against the BJP-RSS agenda of linguistic hegemony, which would cause political disenchantment and financial victimisation.
Nationalism must ensure a winning proposition for all its constituents, he said.
According to Tharoor, the situation of the southern states subsidising the northern states has already emerged.
He also recalled how the previous governments of Indira Gandhi and AB Vajpayee had frozen the delimitation process, saying it must not be a punishment for the states that achieved significant population control measures, as desired by the Union government.
Dakshin Dialogues is South First‘s annual thought conclave that brings together South India’s biggest political and judicial minds, and social activists, on one stage.
While federalism was the primary theme of last year’s event, it is the core of each session this year, too, as South First continues to focus on the other half of the India story.
Dakshin Dialogues 2023 is seeing the likes of Vidadala Rajini, Khushbu Sundar, Shashi Tharoor, Palanivel Thiaga Rajan, Dinesh Gundu Rao, and many others, discussing delimitation, the Southern model of governance, and so much more. Let the dialogues begin!
Watch the event live here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RI7PiM5KFJI
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