Case for consensus: On delimitation
The monsoon session of Parliament is in its last week without any substantive deliberations or legislative outcomes. There may be several reasons for the stalemate, but at its core are the controversial FCRA amendments and the opacity around the government’s delimitation proposals. Overall, it is as if the government views Parliament as an obstacle to be circumvented rather than a forum for deliberation and consensus-building on national issues. That is the attitude that offers no resolution to any question, while it may create winners and losers on some. But in the absence of good-faith conversations and consensus, what may appear to be a victory for the government or the Opposition at one moment could turn out to be a net loss for parliamentary democracy and the nation. A parliamentary majority is a necessary technicality, but democracy is not limited to that. The effort must always be to expand consensus and reduce conflict across the spectrum of opinion on any given issue. India, being as diverse as it is, naturally has multiple views, not only between the government and the Opposition but also within each side. Unfortunately, expressing and reconciling those opinions is given far less priority than marshalling the numbers to support any given move. The impact of the forthcoming delimitation is going to be far-reaching; it must be preceded by as wide a consensus as possible. The country’s representative system is on the cusp of a revision, but the government that is anxious to modify its timeline and terms also wants to be extremely secretive about it. Passing legislation with very little prior deliberation or parliamentary debate has become routine in recent years. Delimitation is a topic about which there is a great deal of misunderstanding and serious concern. A large segment of even the political class may be oblivious to its scope and implications. Rather than trying to change the laws regarding delimitation and the size of the Lok Sabha by somehow aggregating the required number of votes behind it, the government should circulate its proposals and receive feedback from all stakeholders. An all-party meeting, as demanded by the Opposition, can be a good start to the deliberations that should take place in the polity at large and inside Parliament. Anything that is technically legitimised through subterfuge will be seen by the public as such. It must be recalled that in 1976 and in 2001, under a Congress government and a BJP government, respectively, decisions with regard to delimitation were taken unanimously. The government and the BJP should once again take the initiative to build a consensus on delimitation for the sake of the nation’s unity and progress. Published - August 11, 2026 12:20 am IST Read Comments Copy link Email Facebook Twitter Telegram LinkedIn WhatsApp Reddit READ LATER SEE ALL Remove Related Topics parliament / law / foreign aid / government / democracy / India / Delimitation / Indian National Congress / Bharatiya Janata Party
- 1Delimitation is the constitutional exercise of redrawing Lok Sabha and Assembly constituency boundaries and reallocating seats, ordinarily linked to the latest Census under Article 82. India has frozen seat numbers since 1976, when a constitutional amendment paused delimitation to prevent states with lower population growth, mostly in the south, from losing political weight. This freeze makes the current opacity around delimitation timelines especially sensitive, since any revision directly reshapes the balance of power between northern and southern states in Parliament.
- 2The editorial's critique of stalled deliberation also applies to the FCRA amendments, which govern how NGOs receive foreign contributions and have repeatedly been tightened since 2020 to require funds to route through a single SBI branch in New Delhi. Civil society groups argue such amendments shrink space for foreign-funded advocacy and research. When both FCRA changes and delimitation proposals face the same lack of consultation, it signals a broader pattern of the executive using its majority to bypass extended parliamentary scrutiny on sensitive institutional questions.
- 3Delimitation Commissions have historically been constituted under dedicated statutes, such as the Delimitation Act, 2002, which last redrew constituency boundaries without changing total seat numbers, as mandated by the 84th Constitutional Amendment. Courts interpreting Article 81's 'as far as practicable' equality-of-representation clause have treated population-based apportionment as a guiding constitutional value, even though political practicality has repeatedly delayed its full application, a tension the editorial itself acknowledges by calling for wide consensus first.
- 4Population disparities underline the stakes of delimitation: since the 1971 Census, on which current seat allocations are based, southern states have seen fertility rates fall to around 1.6 to 1.8 children per woman, below the national replacement level of 2.1, while states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar have grown faster. A population-based reallocation today could shift a significant number of Lok Sabha seats northward, which is why the editorial's call for consensus, not just numbers, carries real long-term implications for federal balance across India's 28 states.