population

["Ash Mahesh" <ash_mahesh@hotmail.com>]

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Administrative Note:
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Week's Agenda: Population
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Sanjeev, I clearly accept the literal position you put out, but I wonder
how readily it will be accepted in a place like India, where every
subgroup is vying for separate and guarded benefits to itself. One man,
one vote, is not really fair to Kerala or Tamilnadu, which may be
working hard to get their folks up with sound population policies. The
only way they are then able to protect their particular interests is by
controlling the ingress of people from other parts of India. And that is
a whole new Pandora's box.

In a policy statement, it is important to distinguish good policy from
bad, I believe. A number-neutral policy on representation merely dodges
the question.

Perhaps this problem, as you say, has not been solved anywhere
satisfactorily. Our own experiment with delimitation has fixed
representation at the level of the 1971 census, and is about to be
re-jiggled in a couple of years. I am pretty sure that southern leaders
and those from some northern smaller states will fight tooth and nail to
keep their representative strengths. Also, merely increasing the number
of seats is no solution, for in these things it is relative strengths
that matter. I'm not very optimistic on this front, and it will be
interesting to see how this is resolved.

Decentralization may be the answer, since it really reduces the power of
the centre, and makes it quite irrelevant how opinions of numerical
majorities can hold sway over those of others.

Still thinking out loud.

Ash

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