The brutal assassination of Sunil Mahatao, JMM MP from Jamshedpur, causes us to revisit the argument on smaller states.When Jharkhand was created along with other new states, it was claimed the new states would follow a ‘model of development’ ‘suitable’ to the specific needs of the local populations. But the new states have not brought any qualitative difference to the lives of people. The politics of the bullet practised by Maoist groups continues to persist in Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh. Sunil Mahato’s assassination is the latest testimony to the fact that nothing has changed in these states. Second, the model of politics in these states is a replication of trends found in every other state. Shibu Soren, a charismatic tribal leader, instead of providing new direction to Jharkhand’s tribals, is imprisoned on a charge of murdering his secretary. The son of Ajit Jogi, a former chief minister of the new state of Chhattisgarh, is charged in a criminal case. N.D. Tiwari, the former Congress CM of Uttarakhand, practiced all the tricks he had, as CM of UP. Third, a full-fledged religion-based party like the BJP is hardly expected to provide any new thinking for the governance of Chhattisgarh or Uttarakhand. Fourth, Ajit Singh of the Rashtriya Lok Dal is spearheading a movement for the creation of a separate Harit Pradesh of Jat-dominated western UP but hasn’t come up with an alternative political paradigm. Finally, every new state follows the same model of governance, with a governor, council of ministers, separate high courts, separate capital, et al. This shows the politics of development is ‘size neutral’. Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh can be categorised as ‘developed’ while Nagaland, Mizoram or Manipur are ‘disturbed’ because underdevelopment has created social discontent. The same is the story of big states like Tamil Nadu which can be characterised as ‘developed’ in comparison to ‘underdeveloped’ large states like UP. Robert Dahl, an American political scientist, had written in his classic, Democracy and Size, that it cannot be conclusively proved that the small size of the state is conducive to the development of meeting the specific aspirations of the local people. The poor tribals of Jharkhand have gained nothing from the creation of a new ‘tribal’ state, even as the coal mine mafia continues to prosper. Today it appears that the demand for the creation of a new state is raised to achieve the political goals of ambitious leaders who want ‘little empires’ to rule.
