Attacking the Union government and Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the impending delimitation of Lok Sabha seats, Telangana IT minister and Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) working president KT Rama Rao (KTR) said that if there is injustice to south Indian states, then there will be a “southern uprising". KTR was referring to Parliament seats being decided based on population per state, which would lead to southern states having a lesser share of seats.
"If you think you can suppress our voices in Parliament, then I can promise you that you will see a southern uprising. The government of India in the 1970s vociferously campaigned against population explosion, and family planning was done. Southern states then controlled the population based on that and today we are suffering. It was the government of India that wanted to control the population, and now, any state that has done well (on that front) will be penalised," said KTR while addressing a press conference in Hyderabad on Tuesday, September 26.
The Telangana minister said that just two of the northern states - Uttar Pradesh and Bihar - will alone have more Lok Sabha seats than all the south Indian states. "We are all proud Indian citizens and the south is the largest contributor to the Indian economy. About 19% of the population contributes to 35% of India's Gross Domestic Product (GDP)," stated KTR.
KTR also launched a diatribe against PM Modi and called him the the "most inept" leader in the country. He pointed out that the Union government had promised to make India a five trillion dollar economy by now. "We have had the highest inflation. Let me remind you, he (Modi) promised India to be a five trillion economy. He promised that every house will have a potable drinking water connection. Modi has been most inefficient, inept and probably the most corrupt,” he said.
On September 20, while debating the Women’s Reservation Bill in the Parliament, DMK MP Kanimozhi had also criticised the delimitation exercise planned by the Union government. Referring to a statement by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin on the matter of delimitation, she quoted him saying, “India is the only country that has not conducted the decadal census. If delimitation is going to be based on population census, it will deprive and reduce the representation of south Indian states. It will become like a sword hanging over our heads.”