The southern states of India, which have been successful in birth control to maintain relevance in parliamentary politics, are now leaning towards increasing their population. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin has asked all able-bodied married women in the state to produce 16 children each. Although he did not set a limit, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu has said that maternity leave will be granted to mothers every time a child is born.
Chandrababu’s party TDP MP Appala Naidu has gone a step further and said that if a mother gives birth to a third child, she will be rewarded. Rs 50,000 in cash for each daughter, and a cow for each son. He will spend this money from his own salary.
The second part of the budget session began on Monday. On the first day, there was a ruckus in both houses of Parliament over the mandatory teaching of Hindi in government schools in Tamil Nadu and the fear of losing out to the Deccan in the allocation of parliamentary seats based on population. The opposition staged a walkout in the Rajya Sabha, and the Lok Sabha session was adjourned for some time. Along with these two issues, the opposition also protested against the government’s Manipur policy and allegations of tampering with voter lists in the state against the Election Commission. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi supported the Trinamool Congress in this regard. The leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha said that the issue is serious. Like West Bengal, allegations of tampering have been raised in Maharashtra and Haryana as well. The issue needs to be looked at seriously.
The political tug-of-war between the central government and the Tamil Nadu government against the forcible imposition of Hindi has been going on for quite some time. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin alleged that the center is blackmailing the state over Hindi language education. It is not paying the due money. The opposition had a heated argument with Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan in the Lok Sabha today. The minister also uttered unparliamentary words. He also withdrew it in the face of opposition.
Tamil Nadu is also vocal about reducing the seats in Parliament. If the seats in the Parliament are allocated based on population, the representation of the five southern states in the Lok Sabha will be drastically reduced compared to the north. Despite the success in implementing the birth control program, Chief Minister Stalin has taken the initiative to unite various states in protest against this ‘deprivation’. He has written letters to the Chief Ministers of various states. He has proposed to keep the composition of the Parliament unchanged for another 30 years. Today, at the beginning of the second part of the budget session, the opposition put pressure on the central government on these two issues. Along with Stalin, Chandrababu Naidu has also spoken about the need to increase the population. But he has not yet directly expressed the fear of the South’s seats decreasing in parliamentary politics. He has not even stood by Stalin’s initiative. It is not even possible for him to do so right now. Because he is a supporter of the BJP-led NDA coalition government at the center.
However, Chandrababu’s talk of increasing the number of children and the goal he has spoken of fulfilling reflects the fears of the southern states. At a function organized on the occasion of International Women’s Day last Saturday, he said that till now, mothers get maternity leave up to the birth of two children. From now on, numbers will no longer be considered. Every time a child is born, you will get maternity leave.
Chandrababu expressed concern during his recent visit to Delhi after seeing DMK leader Stalin taking over the leadership of Deccan to maintain relevance in parliamentary politics. Showing statistics, he said that the average age of the population in states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar is much younger than in southern states. To eliminate this disparity, it is important for women in the south to produce more children. Encouraged by this, the announcement of cash and cow gifts by his own party’s MP has created a surprise.
A top BJP leader today told Prothom Alo about the north-south division of Indian politics, that the politics of Hindi aggression is as sensitive in Tamil Nadu as it is in other states. This controversy is not difficult to resolve.
The leader said that this issue has created unrest in Tamil Nadu many times in the past. It has stopped. But the issue of redefining the boundaries of parliamentary constituencies based on population and increasing the Lok Sabha seats accordingly is serious. If this concern is not addressed in time, the political division between the north and south could become dangerous for the unity and solidarity of the country.
