Attack on Indian Democracy by SEAT FREEZE DECISION




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cmishra
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chandan mishra
9
26
2002-12-03T20:49:00Z
2002-12-05T00:14:00Z
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Cisco Systems, Inc.
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Attack on Indian Democracy by SEAT FREEZE DECISION
This is to bring the attention of Indians who care about Indian democracy in
regards to FREEZE OF LOK SABHA AND ASSEMBLY SEATS decision taken by Govt
of India and a related constitutional amendment bill passed by parliament and
soon to be ratified by required number of state legislatures. In nutshell,
91st constitution amendment bill freezes the current number of
parliament seats per state till 2026 regardless of their current population.
Details concerning this can be found in following webpage:
 http://www.india-seminar.com/2001/506/506%20alistair%20mcmillan.htm
Basically this innocuous sounding (may be even progressive sounding to some
people) step by Govt of India represents a deep assault on the foundations of
democracy in our country. What this bill aims to do is nothing less than
disenfranchising millions of people basically coming poorest portions of the
country. If we make quick calculations, loss of 10-12 seats to certain parts of
country, which the population there are genuinely entitled to, represents a
population of 1-2 crore of people hailing from poorest parts of country. Freeze
of number of LokSabha seats per state, would basically lead to people from
poorest parts of India, where slow economic growth has been the main reason for
higher population growth rate, having lesser say in national politics and the
way funds are allocated among different regions of country.
The argument that recalculation of number of seats would lead to punishing
states who have followed family planning programs more sincerely, is inherently
flawed. This argument assumes that if we tend to have less number of seats
allocated for regions with higher population growth, they would try to reduce
their population growth rates to reduce the disadvantage of having less number
of representatives per chunk of population. First of all such simplistic
solutions for checking population growth are inherently erroneous at least when
in this case it does not kind of affect day to day life of average person.
One should try to note utter lack of interest in broader national benefit in
people campaigning for this argument against re-mapping of constituencies, we
find same people arguing against allocation of higher amount of funds for poorer
states. Now their argument is we should not punish states performing better
economically, by allocating them less fraction of funds.
If one studies more, these moves are nothing but manifestations of national
politics being hijacked by whims of regional parties taking advantages of number
games required for coalition politics at center. So much gets written about
religious communalism, but another important danger to our nation very often
ignored is communalism based on regionalism. If we don’t check the regional
parties pursuing their own agenda with little regard for broader national
interest, we might come very close to territorial break up.
Other relevant links:
 http://manipuronline.com/Editorials/March2002/march23_2.htm
 http://www.kodava.org/CoffeeLand/Feb2000/coffee021800.htm
 http://www.tribuneindia.com/2001/20010823/edit.htm#2
 http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/2001/09/17/stories/05172524.htm
Please sign the following petition and forward it to your
friends:
Petition
against communal disenfranchisement in India
Chandan
Mishra 


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