Will government ensure 24 share of South in Lok Sabha post-delimitation asks John Brittas

New Delhi, Mar 21 (PTI) John Brittas, a Kerala MP from the Communist Party of India (Marxist), on Friday wondered if the government would maintain the 24 per cent share that the southern states have in the Lok Sabha seats after delimitation.
     Brittas made the remarks in Rajya Sabha while participating in the debate on the working of the Home Ministry.
     "Will you maintain the pro rata share of the South India in the Lok Sabha seats? As far as I understand, there is a 24 per cent share of the South in Lok Sabha seats. Will you retain this 24 per cent share even if you do the delimitation? This is a pertinent, important question I am addressing to the Home Minister," Brittas said, remarking on Union Home Minister Amit Shah's comments in the Upper House.
     He spoke about democracy as well as Muslims' representation in the executive and said their representation in the government is zero.
     Brittas also said that eight bills passed by the Kerala Assembly and eleven bills by the Tamil Nadu Assembly have been kept pending by the governors.
     "The concentration of power in Delhi would kill the federal spirit and principles of this country," Brittas said.
     He alleged that various funds, such as Rs 849 crore to Kerala and Rs 2,125 crore to Tamil Nadu, to run various schemes, have not been released to them by the Centre.
     Brittas referred to a Hate Lab Report to say there has been an 84 per cent surge in incidents of communal violence and most of these incidents happened in BJP-ruled states.
     He alleged though there was an imposition of Hindi in Tamil Nadu, none of the north Indian states were implementing the three-language formula.
     "If we need to protect this country, we need to have cardinal principles in mind which I talked about democracy, secularism and federalism," Brittas said.
     "My request to the honourable Home Minister is that please look beyond the parochial interest of BJP and Sangh Parivar. Please look at the unity of this country," he said.
     On the ongoing controversy on Aurangzeb, he said the country has so many threats but it is dwelling on history because of selective amnesia.
     When he referred to Elon Musk's Grok (chatbot) responses on some governance issues, Shah intervened and said that he should talk about India and not Musk.
     "I am talking about your close friend," replied Brittas.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)