Conclave of southern States

While recent months have seen calls for the creation of a “” and angry statements by south Indian leaders about how New Delhi is ignoring their interests, it was the , held in Thiruvananthapuram in early April, which marked a formal expression of southern solidarity. While there were representatives from Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Puducherry, there were no representatives from Tamil Nadu and Telangana at the meeting.

A bone of contention between southern leaders and the Central government has been the use of the 2011 Census, as opposed to the 1971 Census, as the base year for determining revenue distribution. These leaders feel that they have managed to control their population growth and are being penalised for their success. During the conclave, there was a clear consensus that this provision of the 15th Finance Commission was unfair towards southern States. Further, Kerala’s Finance Minister, T.M. Thomas Isaac, said that representatives from Tamil Nadu and Telangana, along with representatives from other States, would be invited to the next meeting in early May at Visakhapatnam. This is an interesting dynamic which will test the limits of boiling down the range of quibbles that the southern States have with the Central government into a simple north/south clash.

Several non-southern leaders have backed the southern States in this venture, including West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, even if her support was viewed by some as a political move in the context of ‘Third Front’ alliance grouping for the 2019 general election. Similarly, the decision to invite Finance Ministers from non-BJP-ruled States appeared to acquire a political tinge.

There are good reasons to encourage the creation of a finance ministerial forum with representatives from different parts of India. The Inter-State Council (ISC), set up in accordance with Article 263 of the Constitution, could have emerged as such a forum – even though the initial aim was to resolve disputes among different States – to examine issues of common importance in a timely manner. Even though by November 2017 the ISC was reconstituted with the Prime Minister as its Chairman, and with membership comprising six Union ministers and all Chief Ministers, no effort has been made to widen its functions. Zonal Councils too are restricted in terms of their geographical scope.

In the 1960s and ’70s, regional parties joined hands on issues relating to federalism. For instance, the Shiromani Akali Dal and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, as a result of the close rapport between the late Gurnam Singh and M. Karunanidhi, had strong ties. With the emergence of coalition governments, regional parties have got together at times, but there has been no concerted effort to set up an organised platform — until now.

The writer is a New Delhi-based policy analyst associated with O.P. Jindal Global University