Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu has scrapped the population policy implemented in the state and announced new laws. As of now, people with more than two children have not been able to contest elections in Andhra Pradesh. The Naidu government has now announced the introduction of such a law, which includes a provision that only those with more than two children can contest the civic elections. Naidu’s decision cited the threat of increasing elderly population in southern states. Now Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin has also appealed to people to have 16 children each. The North-South debate in national politics has also intensified due to comments made by two South Korean chief ministers.
Why are North and South arguing?
Of the two chief ministers who have made statements on the population issue, one is Chandrababu Naidu of the NDA and the other is a chief minister of the Stalinist India Group. Regional party leaders from the two rival alliances appear to be on the same page on population policy. However, the arguments for the two are different. Talking about the aging of the rural population in Andhra Pradesh and the migration of young people to cities, Chandrababu Naidu said that if this situation continues, serious problems will arise by 2047. In many villages only the elderly are left. He also pointed out that the state’s average fertility rate is 1.6%, while the country’s fertility rate is 2.1%. At the same time, Stalin also publicly raised the issue of the number of seats in parliament.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin said that people used to bless 16 children before. However, this does not refer to 16 children, but to 16 types of property. No one gives that blessing now. He said perhaps the time has come for newlyweds to have 16 children. He did not mention delimitation but the southern seats of Parliament and said our population is decreasing and this will also affect our Lok Sabha seats. Why don’t we each have 16 children?
How many Lok Sabha seats does which region have?
Talking about the North, the Hindi belt alone has a total of 225 Lok Sabha seats. In the Hindi belt, Uttar Pradesh has 80 seats, Uttarakhand has 5 seats, Bihar has 40 seats, Jharkhand has 14 seats, Madhya Pradesh has 29 seats, Chhatti Sigarh has 11 seats, Rajasthan has 25 seats, Haryana has 10 seats, Himachal Pradesh and a seven-seat Union Territory are also included. However, if we talk about South India, it includes the five states of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala and the Union Territory of Puducherry. Andhra Pradesh has 25 Lok Sabha seats, Telangana 17, Karnataka 28, Tamil Nadu 39, Kerala 20, Puducherry There is 1 municipality.
What is the relationship between population and seats?
The discussion on Lok Sabha seats and delimitation started when Chandrababu Naidu, while talking about the new population policy, appealed to people to increase the population not just of Andhra Pradesh but of the entire southern region. Stalin’s public reference to the number of seats further fueled the debate. The question now is what is the relationship between population and seats? In fact, the standard behind it is one MP for every 1 million people. Seats are provided in proportion to the population and the number of seats is increased through delimitation for this purpose.
According to the 1971 census, the Lok Sabha currently has 545 members. According to the 1951 census, the country’s population was 360 million, and the 1971 census exceeded 50, reaching 550 million. The government then began taking measures to control the population. The southern states showed awareness and took various measures to control the population and succeeded, but on the contrary, the pace of population growth continued in the northern states of India. Southern states had provisions for increasing seats based on population, and delimitation was banned first until 2000 and then until 2026.
Also read: ‘New couples should have 16-16 children…’ After CM Chandrababu Naidu, Stalin now emphasizes on increasing population.
Southern states opposed the increase in seats based on population, saying it would be unfair to them. The Southern states felt that it would be unfair to us to add seats on top of our contribution to population control. To understand the relationship between southern opposition and seat numbers and population, one must also understand the current situation. Currently, there are 225 seats in the Hindi belt states, 130 seats in the southern states and 25 seats in Andhra Pradesh. The state has a population of about 50 million, and if the seats are increased based on population, the number of seats in the state will double to 50. Likewise, the number of seats in Tamil Nadu will only increase from 39 to 77.
Where will Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu be in the seats calculated using the Rs 10 lakh formula?
On the contrary, if we talk about Bihar which is a Hindi belt state, the number of seats will increase from 40 to 131. In Uttar Pradesh, a state with a population of 190 million, the number of seats will increase from 80 to 131. North India will gain more seats in Parliament than South India. The concern for southern parties is that the BJP, which is strong in north India, may decide to add seats given the politics in the north. On the one hand, the Bharatiya Janata Party returned to power for the third consecutive time in the recent general election, but not with the same strength as in the previous two elections.
Also Read: Chandrababu Naidu’s New Population Policy! New law says only people with more than two children can contest local body elections
Chandrababu Naidu is also an important part of the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre. Chandrababu and southern MPs may object. As in 2000, the strategy of the southern parties may be to pressure the government to extend the ban on adding seats for at least 20 years, but this pressure strategy does not necessarily work every time. This may also be the reason why this may not be the case when the center of power shifts to the North in the future, as a strategy to avoid this situation Southern parties now emphasize increasing the population.
Why did Naidu’s policy lead to disputes over the NDA?
The question now is, why did Naidu’s new policy lead to a quarrel in the NDA? In fact, the implementation of India’s new population policy in 2000 is also attributed to the Bharatiya Janata Party. At a time when the BJP-led government and the NDA state government are imposing strict rules on people having more than two children, Naidu’s statement raises the possibility of a feud. After the death of a Maharashtra police officer, his family members were deprived of the facility of compassionate appointment simply because he had more than two children.
Also Read: Do you know how fast India is aging? What do statistics say about Chandrababu Naidu’s call to increase population?
The BJP government in UP has also proposed a new population policy for 2021, which is rumored to prevent people with more than two children from contesting elections, deny them subsidies under government schemes and prevent them from applying for government jobs. The Andhra Pradesh chief minister’s announcement is something of a policy shift at a time when all the BJP and NDA governments in the country are laying down stringent rules to control the population.
