‘We will not be silenced’: At delimitation meet, D K Shivakumar urges Centre to give weightage to population control, economic growth

“This is not just unfair—it is a betrayal of the constitutional promise that development and good governance should be rewarded, not penalised,” Shivakumar said. “The delimitation exercise is not just about parliamentary seats; it is about the future of federalism in India. If the Centre proceeds with this unjust formula, it will alter the federal balance, giving disproportionate power to states that have failed to control population growth. This will not only marginalise the southern states but also undermine the principles of cooperative federalism enshrined in our Constitution,” he added.

The 15th Finance Commission has already reduced financial resources available to southern states by basing allocations on the 2011 population census, Shivakumar said. “The 15th Finance Commission’s population-based formula has already cost us dearly. If the delimitation exercise proceeds as planned, our political voice will be further diminished, and our ability to advocate for our rights in Parliament will be crippled,” he added.

While Karnataka contributes over ₹ 4 lakh crore annually to the Centre’s Gross Tax Revenue, only ₹ 45,000 crore in tax devolution and Rs 15,000 crore in grants are received in return, he said. “For every rupee Karnataka contributes, only 13 paise comes back to us. This is not just economic injustice, it is a systemic plunder of our resources,” Shivakumar claimed.

The Karnataka deputy chief minister also questioned the efforts of the Centre to impose its ‘One Nation, One Language’ policy in the southern states where there is diversity of language and culture. “The relentless push for ‘One Nation, One Language’ seeks to erase this diversity,” he said.

“From railway signboards to competitive exams, the imposition of Hindi undermines our linguistic and cultural sovereignty. Let me be clear: Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, and other regional languages are not mere dialects; they are the lifeblood of our civilizations,” he said.

Shivakumar said that the Centre must consider giving weightage to the efforts of states in controlling population growth, their tax contributions, and quality of governance and not just population. “Implement a floor limit on parliamentary seats for states that have effectively controlled their population. This will ensure that their voices are not marginalised,” he said.

The Karnataka deputy chief minister also suggested increasing the representation of states in the Rajya Sabha, fair norms for tax devolution and resource sharing through the 16th Finance Commission by considering economic performance, fiscal discipline and governance quality.

Shivakumar also sought the protection of the cultural sovereignty of the southern states by establishing a “National Language Rights Commission to enforce the equality of all scheduled languages” and making the use of regional languages compulsory in central institutions.

The JAC must evolve into a “permanent coalition to coordinate legal, legislative, and grassroots advocacy” for the states, he said.

“To the Union Government, we send this clear message: Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and all progressive states will not be silenced. We will fight in the courts, in Parliament, and on the streets to protect our rights, our resources, and our identity,” he said.

Earlier, on his arrival in Chennai on Saturday, Shivakumar said the opposition to the population-based delimitation exercise by the gathering of representatives of states in Chennai is in the interest of the country and not personal.

“In South India, we have been following family planning norms as revealed by the census and we are economically progressive states. We have protected the interest of the country and it is not our interest so this should not be a curse against us,” Shivakumar said.

Karnataka Congress’s stand on delimitation

On July 25, 2024, the Congress government in Karnataka passed a resolution in the state Legislative Assembly to oppose the proposed delimitation of parliamentary and Legislative Assembly constituencies on the basis of a 2026 census, fearing that states that have controlled population growth would be politically disincentivised with lower representation in Parliament.

The government resolution urged the Centre to determine the total number of seats in the process of redrawing Lok Sabha and Legislative Assembly constituencies in Karnataka on the basis of the 1971 census.

“The constituencies of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly must not be redrawn on the basis of the fresh census in 2026 or thereafter when they are redrawn on the basis of population of each state. This House urges the Central Government to decide the number of Lok Sabha seats to be allocated and the total number of seats to be allotted to each State Assembly on the basis of the 1971 census,” the resolution stated.

State Law Minister H K Patil said that the resolution was important “to safeguard the interests of the state of Karnataka and to prevent injustice to South Indian states”.

The Karnataka government has acknowledged that it faces the prospect of fiscal and political losses if the 15th Finance Commission and a new population census are used as a yardstick to decide on fiscal benefits and political representation for states in the Lok Sabha.

“We are also concerned about what is going to happen during delimitation. The 15th Finance Commission dispensed with the consensus in the country that existed from 1971 onwards – where the Constitution was amended by the then Prime Minister Madam Gandhi to ensure that no state is penalized for the demographic progress that a state makes,” state Revenue Minister Krishna Byre Gowda said at a meeting of finance ministers of Opposition-ruled South Indian states in 2024.

“The seats in Parliament were frozen (on the basis of the 1971 census). But now we believe that this issue may be opened up. So if the delimitation happens as per the upcoming census then it is very much possible that all of us (southern states) will lose our representation in Parliament,” Byre Gowda said.

“On one side is a graph where our economic contribution is going up and on the other side there is a very definite possibility that as our economic contribution increases our political representation in the Union may go down,” he said.

“These issues of federalism, fairness and of treating everybody’s issues with respect have attained greater criticality. What transpires and emerges from the 16th Finance Commission will have a bearing on political federalism as well. This may be a quest for justice that goes on for several years if our economic representation and political representation needs to be protected and safeguarded,” Byre Gowda added.