News The 15th Finance Commission May Split Open Demographic Fault Lines Between South and North India

[Guynextdoor]

Avoid the ban, calm down.

'Truth alone triumphs'

 

[Infowarrior]

'Truth alone triumphs'

He who wants to act virtuous in every way necessarily comes to grief among so many who are not virtuous.

Wisdom consists of knowing how to distinguish the nature of trouble, and in choosing the lesser evil.

Occasionally words must serve to veil the facts. But let this happen in such a way that no one become aware of it; or, if it should be noticed, excuses must be at hand to be produced immediately.

 

[_Anonymous_]

Occasionally words must serve to veil the facts. But let this happen in such a way that no one become aware of it; or, if it should be noticed, excuses must be at hand to be produced immediately.

Taqqiya .

You ought to read more on the word - laconic - the etymology , uses , history , etc . It'd save you and the server hosting this blog a lot of mbs.

 

[_Anonymous_]

Hindutwa ideology emerged in Nagpur among the residue of Peshwai, but political Hindutwa (BJP) emerged in Gujarat under Modi.

Not only are you an ill informed fool and a totally confused retard but you also have a sense of humour . Albeit unintentional .I never knew that about you.

When's the alternative history of Hinduism / Hindutva authored by you going to be published ? You could serialise it here and use the response of the members out here as a some sort of a test audience .

 

[sid4587]

The intention of the author is to scrutinize a policy of central government.
The point is Kerala and Tamil Nadu are being punished for controlling population. Kerala to a lesser extent.

Or may be to criticize 9 out of 14 PM who were from UP(resides in Northern Part of India).

 

[Infowarrior]

Taqqiya .

You ought to read more on the word - laconic - the etymology , uses , history , etc . It'd save you and the server hosting this blog a lot of mbs.

Its not Taqqiya but Chanakya niti...

 

[sid4587]

Note: History is repeating itself, BJP divides nation into north-south.
22 May 1996

The Great Divide
Below the Vindhyas the mood is sullen. The South thinks the North is guilty of not only arrogance and ignorance, but also cultural, economic and political colonialism.

A.S. Panneerselvan

IS the North colonising the South? The answer from most southerners would be a loud, vehement, 'Yes'. To put the feelings of the South in a nutshell: the very north Indian mindset of clubbing all southerners as Madrasis erodes the plurality of the South. The North is guilty of arrogance and ignorance simultaneously. Northerners have come to think that India is exclusively their property. What's worse, the Government of India often acts as if it were primarily the Government of North India.

The map of India, many feel, is the perfect metaphor for the deep cleavage between the North and South. North of the Vindhyas the topography expands, while the South tapers into the Indian Ocean. Six decades ago, the founders of the Dravidian movement in Tamil Nadu created a rallying slogan: "Vadaku vazhgirathu; Theruku Teigir-athu" (North is thriving; South is eroding).

More often than not, the distance between the southern state capitals and the national capital turns out to be more than geographical. All the centres of power are up North and there is a strong feeling of often being outside the pale of things in relation to that enigma called New Delhi. Decisions are made there with the South denied a sense of participation in the affairs of the nation. Despite having a southerner as the Prime Minister. "The North naturally feels the Government functions in its lap and it can caress it and fondle it at will," says senior journalist R. Gopal Krishna.

The first issue that accentuates the divide is the question of language. The strength of the feeling about the language issue was underlined by the experience of one young woman from the South, who, on encountering some problems at New Delhi railway station, went to a policeman for help—only to be informed by the upholder of law and order that if she wanted to make a complaint, she should first learn to speak in Hindi. "Imposing Hindi as the national language shows the hegemonising desire of the Hindi-speaking North. After all, people have been learning languages other than their mother tongue based on their needs," says social scientist M.S.S. Pandian. While Tamil Nadu is articulate in its antagonism towards Hindi, the anti-Hindi feeling is alive but dormant in the other southern states. "If Hindi could get jobs, why is the unemployment more acute in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar?" asks J. Jayar-anjan, an economist with the Madras Institute for Development Studies.

Besides the Hindi domination, the South considers that its culture is being neglected by northern centres of authority, thereby depriving India of much of its heritage. "Penguin and the University of Chicago have done more for ancient southern literature than the Government of India," observes Tamil litterateur Koonangi. National institutions like the National Book Trust and Sahitya Akademi have done little to capture the vibrancy of the literary climate down South. None of the agham (poems on love and relationships) or puram (poems on war and politics), which are some of the world's best, were translated by these institutions. The great epics of Tamil literature—Silapathikaram and Manimekalai, which are about 2,000 years old—are now available in English thanks to Penguin. "The Indian state has failed to recognise the unique position of Tamil, which is the only classical language that continues to be the lingua franca of both literary and day-to-day usage. If 10 per cent of the money spent on Sanskrit was spent on Tamil, it would have made a world of difference, says post-modern critic Nagarjunan.

Doordarshan news readers who take pains to pronounce names like Francois Mitterand, V. Zhirinovsky and E. Shevardnadze, are seen to make little effort to learn how to pronounce the names of south Indian leaders. "Politicians who have been in the scene for more than five decades like former president R. Venkataraman, M. Karunanidhi, V.R. Nedunchezhiyan and E.M.S. Nambo-odiripad are all victims of mispronunciation," says S. Guhan, former economic adviser to the chief minister of Tamil Nadu and a cultural observer. According to cartoonist Abu Abraham, who has quite a fan following abroad, the time has come for southerners to ignore the north Indian bias. "If they are ignorant, it's their bad luck. We have the whole world to recognise us. The moment the West accepts us, the North will meekly follow suit."

THE discrimination is felt to be most acute when it comes to the Centre-state relationship and the question of fund allocation for development work. "The Indian Planning Commission has reduced the Centre-state relationship to that of a 'creditor-debtor' one. The natural victims of such a skewed arrangement are the southern states who have become beggars at the doorsteps of the Centre," observes Prof Naganathan, Head of the Department of Economics at Madras University. According to him, none of the official statistics are true. "A north Indian state becomes poor and backward when it comes to the Planning Commission and miraculously transforms into an efficient and money generating one when it comes to the Finance Commission, and thereby gets more projects as well as more money," he says contemptuously. Conversely, the southern states get little from the central kitty. I.S. Gulati and K.K. George of the Thiruvananthapuram-based Centre for Development Studies point out that budgetary transfers have served to further enrich the economically stronger (read northern) states and weaken the other states. They observe: "The Centre has the funds, the states are burdened with the problems. But because the Centre has the funds, its priorities have prevailed."

The southern states are the worst affected since they have a political tradition of choosing a different party to rule the state from that in power at the Centre. All the non-Congress governments were dismissed at least once. The first dismissal of a popularly elected government took place in 1959 when Nehru dismissed Kerala's Communist government. Since then, Article 356 hangs as a Damocles' Sword over the head of the southern governments. "Unlike the northern states where Article 356 was used because of the collapse of the government or because of the breakdown of constitutional machinery as in the case of the BJP governments in the aftermath of December 6, 1992, the use of Article 356 for dismissing a southern government could never be justified. It was a blatant sign of hegemony," observes Murasoli Maran, MP for over 25 years and the author of a book on state autonomy.

The role of the bureaucracy is seen as another factor in the subjugation of the South. "No ambitious IAS officer will advise or provide necessary information to the state government to fight the Centre. As long as the possibility of moving to the Central cadre with plum postings exists, the bureaucracy will not let the political leadership be assertive," says Guhan, himself a former IAS officer.

Ramakrishna Hegde, former Karnataka chief minister and senior Janata Dal leader, says: "The attitude (of the Centre) was absolutely hostile. Many industrial projects which we wanted to start in the state and which had been approved by various technical and financial bodies were shifted either to Uttar Pradesh or another northern state." Hegde, who claims that he can give at least 20 such examples, cites as proof of the Centre's discriminatory attitude, the shifting of the manufacture of digital telephone exchange equipment from ITI, Bangalore, to Uttar Pradesh; the non-approval of a Rs 1,000-crore Tata project to manufacture passenger cars in Karnataka; and the refusal of permission for SAIL to take over Visvesvaraya Iron and Steel industries Ltd in Bhadravati which was then facing a resource crunch.

DMK president M. Karunanidhi, all set to become Tamil Nadu chief minister again, has an even longer list of unapproved plans; stalled projects, deferred expansions and forgotten promises of the Centre. Says he: "The integral coach factory in Madras is doing well and one expected its expansion to take place in Tamil Nadu, but it went to Punjab. Hindustan Photo Films went to Uttar Pradesh. The Sethu Samudram project which would alter the maritime trade has been pending with the Centre for four decades. The Salem Steel Plant expansion is as elusive as ever. Even the proposed Southern Gas grid remains a pipe dream." According to Faziludheen, news editor, Kerala Kaumudi, 26 projects meant for Kerala are awaiting Central clearance. This includes the Kayamkulam power project promised by Indira Gandhi in lieu of the Silent Valley power project.

"These issues can't be dismissed under the consideration that we are one country. Why is it that certain areas here are less developed than they should have been while hundreds of crores are spent on projects in a place like Amethi by both Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi?" asks B.K. Chandrashekar—a former Janata Dal MLC and an IIM teacher. Delaying assent to projects, a standard practice, has resulted in escalating the cost of 36 projects and even in killing projects like the Vijayanagar Steel plant in Karnataka, for which the foundation stone was laid by Indira Gandhi or the Rs 2,500 crore Aromatics project in Tamil Nadu.

Keralites are concerned about the flight of capital from their small state towards the North. The state, which has less than 4 per cent of India's population and 1 percent of land area, accounts for nearly 30 per cent of the country's foreign exchange through exports of spices, coir, cashew, plantation and marine products and the annual Rs 3.5 billion home remittance of Keralites working in the Gulf. "Yet Kerala fails to get transformed into an industrial capital. The value addition for rubber and coconut never happens within the state. Their procurement prices are determined elsewhere and rarely do the cultivators get their share," observes K.T. Ram Mohan, editor, Kerala Padanangal, a Malayalam journal brought out on the lines of the Economic and Political Weekly. "Kerala gives about Rs 16,000 crore to the Central exchequer while its annual budget is only Rs 2,000 crore. If this is not flight of capital, what is?" asks an economist with the Centre for Development Studies.

The other area of discrimination is seen to be against rice, the major food grain of the South. The late D.S. Tyagi, former chairman of Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices, Ministry of Agriculture, pointed out in his book Managing India's Food Economy, that rice accounts for 41 per cent of the total production of food grains and wheat only 31 per cent. Similarly, the rice crop accounts for the largest area under any single crop—39 per cent. But when it comes to procurement, rice gets a stepmotherly treatment. The quantity of procurement is 30 per cent for rice while it is 42 per cent for wheat. The present subsidy for wheat is about 61 per cent and that for rice 39 per cent. Tyagi was assassinated in Delhi because he argued for the better price for rice," claims a scientist of the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University. Observes Ram Mohan cynically: "In the next 15 years, the Central Government may issue an order that the people of the South should eat wheat instead of rice."

Even the service sector, controlled by Delhi, is seen to be blatantly lopsided, to the detriment of the South. For instance, the Thiruvan-anthapuram-Gulf sector is Air India's only profit-making sector. With one million Malayalis in the Gulf, the sector is always over-booked. Yet, the fare between Thiruvananthapuram and the Gulf is Rs 2,000 more than that between Bombay and the Gulf, through Thiruvananthapuram is closer by 212 nautical miles.

The current feelings of alienation are strong. Says S.V. Rani, 32, Tamil Nadu schoolteacher: "If MGR and NTR win elections, then southerners are film-crazy idiots. If Rajesh Khanna or Shatrughan Sinha or Sunil Dutt win elections, northerners are sensitive to the political understanding of artistes. Such is their arrogance and stupidity. People who were influenced by two television serials — Mahabharata and Ramayana—and gave life to a dying political party like the BJP (it won only 2 seats in the 1984 elections), are making fun of us. We don't demolish any places of worship." Says S. Krishnan, 56, an economist with a transnational bank: "The North's ignorance about the South is comparable to the South's ignorance of the North. The divide is real. But the efforts to bridge the gap are a farce."

In 1970, the then chief minister of Karnataka, Veerendra Patil, had dryly observed: "It is feared that at this rate there may be urgent demands for more autonomy by the states and a day might come when different houses and bhavans of the states in Delhi are constrained to assume the characters of embassies."

The Great Divide

highly motivated with an agenda, guys please ignore it.....it wud be gud only when we ignore it

 

[_Anonymous_]

Its not Taqqiya but Chanakya niti...

It's from The Prince - Machiavelli.

See that's why you're a certified clown . Kitaabein toh bohut khareed sakte ho , gyaan kahaan se laoge ?

 

[Infowarrior]

It's from The Prince - Machiavelli.

See that's why you're a certified clown . Kitaabein toh bohut khareed sakte ho , gyaan kahasn se laoge ?

Machiavelli was 2nd birth of a Chankaya in a superior Yoni. Is this Gyan enough for you.

I don't need books for Knowledge, knowledge is useless without logic.

 

[_Anonymous_]

Machiavelli was 2nd birth of a Chankaya in a superior Yoni.

I don't need books for Knowledge, knowledge is useless without logic.

You're in the wrong forum . Why don't you write satire for some TV show . You're a natural . Just reproduce all this shit you post here and add your analysis .You'd easily give Cyrus Broacha and his The Week That Wasn't , a run for his money.

Then , we'd gladly exclaim about you here what you claim about Machiavelli .

P.S - I've a nice big lolly for you if you tell the difference here between yoni ( your origin and slang for what you are ) and garbha.

 

[Vicky]

Will not allow bullet train, says MNS chief Raj Thackeray -- link
But Raj Thakare has a problem with Bullet train going to Gujarat from Mumbai. His words " There is nothing in Ahmadabad, this bullet train is being built for Gujarati convenience only. Bullet train should go to Bangalore Hyderabad Chennai etc... "

If South Indians band together with Central states, its possible to counter this population disadvantage.

‘Make Bengaluru second capital after New Delhi’ -- link
I endorse this, Bengaluru should be made second capital. Bengaluru >>> Delhi

Why should Bangalore become second capital? Madras is an metro city, bigger and larger and older than Bangalore.

Anyway that's only wishful thinking. No state government will hand over city to Central government. Will destroy them politically. Second will drastically reduce revenues. Karnataka's development index is very poor compared to other SI and Western states. Reason: Its development is concentrated only around Bangalore and Mysore. Giving Bangalore to Centre will reduce Ktaka's revenue by half. Idiotic move I will say. Other regions are very very under-developed pulling it down.

 

[Vicky]

Now wire provoking north south divide based on self serving analyses.

Divide india by a thousand cuts. Its obvious whose bidding these people do. Manishankar iyers pleas have not fallen on deaf ears.

Honestly this is not an old debate. All media organisations have done this debate. And its good for democracy. Nothing wrong in it. California being the 6th largest economy in the world is asking why it should pay for other states and it wants its own immigration policy. Quebec has its own immigration policy. Its not unknown of.

United States of South India: Can a southern collective get us a better deal from Delhi?

I believe Tamil Nadu should ramp up the pressure politically. Allocations for the last few years have been very unfavourable to TN. NITI AAyog promised to bring up performance ratings where revenue will be distributed based on performance in various social indixes. But havent implemented it as most of the states losing out revenue will be BJP/Congress ruled ones.

Its time every state demands share of the taxes collected from state. I believe it will be a healthy improvement. If Delhi returns 10% of the taxes collected from TN and 5-8% for development projects it can retain the rest. The thing to note is, the percentile has to remain the more or less for different states according to their population. While I understand rich states should subsidise the poor ones, the extent and the years they have to do is the question considering all states started from zero base and some states were richer than south during Independence. A good debate in a democracy.

 

[Vicky]

@nair @Aashish This is a good thread. Can you please delete the unnecessary religious comments from this thread starting from page 2? Thanks

 

[Shajida Khan]

But right now Gujarati business is gaining more from this symbiosis, than south. Hindutwa also originated from Gujarat.

What an utter bunch of bullshit!

State-wise Car Sales in India : April 2016 to March 2017 (FY17) - Team-BHP

Tamil-Nadu is a major producer of automobiles in India, the quintessential Detroit of India. If Gujarat, Maharashtra, North India puts a punitive tax on automobiles originating from TN, will TN be able to sustain its automobile industry?

 

[Aravind]

I do not know the intention of the author..... But in almost all Social parameters and indexes kerala will score miles ahead of others.... So is TN, what is the big deal???? If i go by the increase or decrese of allocations.... I See kerala on Positive, and TN on negative.... So the analysis is flawed from there itself.....

Kerala and TN is south India, and rest of the states are North India????

That is because you won't find any Dravidian followers or idiots who want South India to be separate in rest of the states, speaking of Karnataka,Andhra Pradesh, Telangana .
Now that Modi is in power, it has become unbearable to Communists, Dravida advocates and nobody follows their ideas. Communists are dying, so are Dravdian chavunists, the more you see Hindus consolidate, these groups will bitch and moan of how bad it is and why the rest of TN, Kerala should separate so that these people can have their states as echo chambers.

 

[Aravind]

These Wire, scroll people should be hanged for writing such articles, kill one of these rats and see the rest scamper to cover in their holes.
The situation might come to that, if these idiots don't stop propagating Pakistani-Chinese propaganda as news.
Put the fear of god in these people , bump off some of them and see them cry and mellow down. The more they scream, the very next day one more should be bumped off, till they get the lesson of stopping Pak-China Propaganda.

 

[Infowarrior]

What an utter bunch of bullshit!

State-wise Car Sales in India : April 2016 to March 2017 (FY17) - Team-BHP

Tamil-Nadu is a major producer of automobiles in India, the quintessential Detroit of India. If Gujarat, Maharashtra, North India puts a punitive tax on automobiles originating from TN, will TN be able to sustain its automobile industry?

No state benefits from Indian market more than Gujarat. That was the point basically
Amul Godrej, Bajaj etc....

And other point was punishing a state for controlling population. <<< Don't dodge this point
---------------------

And, I'm no fan of Tamil Nadu or Tamils....
Periyar dam issue: Economic blockade on Kerala Written by: Published: Wednesday, November 15, 2006, 14:08 [IST]
Read more at: Periyar dam issue: Economic blockade on Kerala -- link

Economic blockade only solution to rein in Kerala, says Vaiko
Economic blockade only solution to rein in Kerala, says Vaiko - Indian Express -- link

Clamp economic blockade against Kerala: PMK tells Tamil Nadu government
South | Press Trust of India | Updated: June 15, 2012 14:22 IST
Clamp economic blockade against Kerala: PMK tells Tamil Nadu government --link

Mullaperiyar issue: Shops owned by Keralites attacked in Tamil Nadu
Mullaperiyar issue: Shops owned by Keralites attacked in Tamil Nadu | Latest News & Updates at Daily News & Analysis -- link

 

[Bharath]

No state benefits from Indian market more than Gujarat. That was the point basically
Amul Godrej, Bajaj etc....

And other point was punishing a state for controlling population. <<< Don't dodge this point

no state benefits more from Indian market than gujarat:
why? is there a reservation for gujarathis?
anyone in India can make it big in India. the GST now has made sure the tax is same everywhere in India so a guy manufacturing in TN can sell his goods at the same rate as in Guj (add transport charges thats all).

Punishing state for controlling population:
the monies distributed from the center need to be based on number of Indian citizens - not based on number of states. a state like TN and a state like Goa get distribution based on their population - not based on their land.
reduce the numbers to more manageable levels to understand:
if the center has 100 rupees,
there are 2 states
one state has 90 people, the other has 10
which state should get more money?

the distribution is based on total monies/total population so every citizen of India is treated equally. how is this discriminatory?

 

[Bharath]

Demographic divergence manifesting itself in the form of populous northern states asserting their political will over the more prosperous and less populous southern states is only beginning.

how come you have no qualms when demographic divergence across religions causes the political will of one community dominate the other?

 

[Vicky]

if the center has 100 rupees,
there are 2 states
one state has 90 people, the other has 10
which state should get more money?

If a state with 10 people generates 50 rupees of the money then what would you say? People in Southern states now look for more development and comfort. Remember every state started with same HDI and economic indices. We cannot pay for the sins of Lalu and Mulayam Yadavs and the moronic communists in Bengals. That's a debate which should happen. Its healthy for democracy.