Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Oct 21: Close on the heels of the Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu advising his people to raise more children, his Tamil Nadu counterpart MK Stalin on Monday made a similar comment, “why not have 16 children!”
The context in the two cases, however, was different. While Mr Naidu’s advice was in keeping with the aging population in his state, Mr Stalin’s remark was aimed at hitting the BJP government at the centre which was believed to be considering redistribution of the Lok Sabha seats to various states based on the current population.
“There is a feeling… why not have 16 children (as we) lose Lok Sabha seats” – Mr Stalin’s eyebrow-raising ‘solution’ came on Monday to the possibility his state will have to part with many – and therefore be less important to any party looking to form the union government – after the delimitation in 2026, redrawing of parliamentary constituencies based on revised population levels.
The DMK leader – presiding over the state-funded Hindu marriage ceremony of 31 couples – said the tradition in his state was for family elders to bless married couples with “16 kinds of wealth”; the benediction, translated from Tamil, reads “Acquire 16 kinds of wealth and lead a prosperous life”.
“That blessing does not mean you should have 16 children… but now a situation has arisen where people think they may have to, literally, raise 16 children and not a small and prosperous family” to remain relevant in the political scenario in the country.
As an aside (and in a comment seen as another jab at the BJP that is in power at the centre), Mr Stalin called on Tamil couples to give their children “beautiful Tamil names.” The Chief Minister’s comment about Tamil names for Tamil children comes amid yet another state-centre flare-up on the language row; last week Mr Stalin lobbed tough questions at Governor RN Ravi, the centre’s rep in the state, for trying to “impose Hindi everywhere.”
At the centre of the population controversy was the delimitation process. Over the past several months Tamil Nadu, and the other southern states, have expressed concern over a delimitation exercise that will see the number of seats in the Lok Sabha jump from 543 now to 753 putting the southern states to disadvantage because they have more effectively implemented the centre’s population control measures vis-à-vis the northern states.
The biggest increase will be in Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state; the number of Lok Sabha seats will jump from 80 to 126 – a 57.5 per cent spike. Among the southern states, only Karnataka could see a measurable increase – from 28 seats to 36 – in representation in the Lower House. Tamil Nadu’s Lok Sabha share will likely only inch up – from 39 to 41, a five per cent increase, and Andhra Pradesh and Telangana may be given only three extra seats each. And Kerala – the state that has best controlled population growth, a critical factor as the country and world battles climate change, unemployment, and resource scarcity – could actually lose one of its 20 seats.
Even in the other scenario, the southern states will be put at more disadvantage. If the central government decides to keep the Lok Sabha total at 543 and, instead, re-distribute available seats, Tamil Nadu and Kerala will lose eight seats each while UP and Bihar will gain 11 and 10 seats respectively.
Either way, the opposition has been fiercely critical about the marked disparity between possible revised Lok Sabha representation for the northern states – all of which, except Karnataka, to a large extent, voted for the BJP in the 2014, 2019, and 2024 elections – and for those in the south. And Mr Stalin’s government has been among the most vocal in this regard.
In February Tamil Nadu’s ruling DMK adopted a resolution against the proposed delimitation, arguing that states that have best controlled population levels ought not to be penalised. Conversely, the DMK said, states that had failed to do so should not be rewarded.
Mr Stalin’s comment – in jest, yes, but with a definite edge – came shortly after his Andhra Pradesh counterpart also ‘advised’ people to have more children. Mr Naidu’s comment, however, was in the context of an aging state population. He warned that a disproportionate number of elderly people could affect the state’s finances and offered Japan as an example. “In many villages, only elderly people remain… as the young have migrated to cities or overseas,” he said, adding his government would pass laws in this regard.