In sharp criticism of the government’s proposed delimitation on the basis of the 2011 census, which was circulated yesterday (Tuesday), former Information and Broadcasting Minister, Manish Tewari has called it “motivated gerrymandering” and says the “preponderance of possibility” is that it would threaten India’s political integrity. He says the proposed seat changes in the Lok Sabha are designed to ensure that the BJP’s political hold over the Hindi heartland brings it as close as possible to retaining power for the foreseeable future.

Tewari has done a back of the envelope calculation which shows that if the government’s amendments are passed the number of seats UP has in the Lok Sabha will increase from 80 to around 140 whilst, in comparison, the number of seats Kerala has will only increase from 20 to around 23/24. This means that the ...