Chennai: 

Every State has its own unique language and food habits. The federal fabric of this country can be sustained only through granting the regional autonomy to the states.

This was the reason behind the Constitutional architects designing India as a Union of States with a federal structure.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin said the leaders in the forum have united "as one team to protect Indian democracy", in his opening remarks to the first meeting of the Joint Action Committee against delimitation on the lines of population.

He proposed the Committee can be aptly named as "Fair Delimitation - Joint Action Committee".

Whenever the federal structure suffered a setback, democratic forces have always played vanguard to it.

We have now come together with this realisation. This will be a very important day in the history in protecting India's federal structure.

"The delimitation of (Lok Sabha) constituencies based on population will have a massive impact on States like us. Therefore, we will have to oppose this tooth and nail." He recalled how "Tamil Nadu will lose 8 seats if the (total) number is not increased and the state stands to lose 12 seats if the number is increased in terms of the existing proportion of representation. This will be the same case for all the states whose leaders have gathered here."

The exercise will essentially punish every state which is here for successfully enforcing the population control.

He suggested to form a group of legal experts who would brainstorm on the necessary legal action and to evaluate the available legal recourses (against the unfair delimitation).

He sought comments and feedback on the resolutions he had proposed.

He also asserted that a united approach in this fight would definitely end well and that we should not allow the downsizing, even an iota in the existing proportion of representation at any cost.

Chief Ministers from Kerala, Telangana, and Punjab--Pinarayi Vijayan, Revanth Reddy and Bhagwant Singh Mann-- are among those who were in attendance in the meeting.

"We are not against delimitation, we are for fair delimitation," he said, adding that the collective is for a fair delimitation.

He proposed this Joint Action Committee to be renamed as "Fair Delimitation JAC" and left the attendees to mull over it.

He said that renaming would not be the end of this fight and that it is pertinent to pursue the agenda consistently until the mission(states that have made progress gets its due representation) is achieved.

On one hand, we will have to impress the union government and we should also make people (of our states) aware of the detrimental effects (the states will have to bear if the delimitation is based on population), he said, terming it as one of the most crucial roles of the Committee.

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