How did the politics of delimitation destroy the power of Dalits and Muslims?

The last delimitation for Lok Sabha seats in India took place in 2008-09. At that time, out of total 543 Lok Sabha seats, the boundaries of 499 seats were fixed. Due to the controversy, delimitation of Lok Sabha seats in the North Eastern states including Assam was not done. 

Due to delimitation, the equation of seats is decided and with the help of this equation, political parties fit their calculations. Due to delimitation veteran leaders like Somnath Chatterjee, Shivraj Patil had to lose their traditional seats.

Before Assam, there was opposition to the delimitation done by the commission in Jammu and Kashmir and the commission was accused of working with the central authority. However, the Election Commission has been rejecting these allegations from time to time.

Amidst the claims of the Election Commission that everything is being done correctly, we have tried to understand the politics of delimitation through statistics. Let us read it in detail…

What is delimitation, why there is ruckus in Assam?
The process of redrawing the boundaries of Lok Sabha and Vidhansabha seats is called delimitation. The Election Commission starts this process by the order of the President. The Election Commission forms a commission for delimitation, whose command is given to a retired Supreme Court Justice. 

Representatives of all political parties are also included in the committee. According to Supreme Court lawyer Dhruv Gupta, Article 82 of the Constitution says that every 10 years when the population data comes, the allocation of seats can be considered. 

The Delimitation Act 2002 has rules and regulations related to delimitation. After the delimitation, the commission places that report before the Vidhansabha and the Lok Sabha. 

In the draft of delimitation issued in Assam, the Commission is being accused of neglecting the Muslims. The Muslim community says that if this draft is implemented, the political status of the state’s Muslims will be reduced.

The population of Muslims in Assam is more than 33 percent.

How Dalits and Muslims became weak in delimitation politics?

Muslim-dominated seats reserved in SC category
There are many such seats in the Lok Sabha and Vidhansabha, where the number of Muslims is more. Despite this, those seats were reserved for the SC category. 

Bihar’s Gopalganj, Telangana’s Karimganj, UP’s Nagina and Bulandshahr, Gujarat’s Kutch and Ahmedabad West seat are examples of this. All these 6 seats were reserved for Dalits in 2009.

According to the report of Census India.com, the population of Muslims in Gopalganj is more than 17 percent, while Dalits here are only around 12%. Similarly, Karimganj has 56 percent Muslims and 12 percent Dalits, while this seat has been reserved for Dalits.

In 2009, the existence of Nagina seat in Bijnor district came to the fore. Here  43.04% are Muslims, while the number of Dalits is only  21%. This seat was also reserved in the commission’s delimitation. 

In Bulandshahr, the population of Muslims is 2 percent more than Dalit voters and this seat is also reserved for Dalit candidates. The condition of Gujarat’s Kutch and Ahmedabad West seats is also like that of Nagina and Bulandshahr. These Muslim majority seats are reserved for Dalits.

According to Professor Asad Malik, Department of Law at Jamia Millia Islamia University, due to delimitation, Muslims are not able to become MPs/MLAs even in Muslim majority seats. When MPs are unable to become MLAs, their political stake also reduces.

Political experts say that reserving Muslim-majority seats in the Dalit category is a kind of cleverness, due to which a large number of Muslims could not reach Parliament or Legislative Assembly. 

Dominance of upper-OBC castes but seat reserved for Dalits
There are many such seats in the country, including Hajipur and Samastipur in Bihar, Tikamgarh and Bhind in Madhya Pradesh, where OBC and upper castes dominance, but seats are reserved for Dalits.

Talking about Hajipur, this seat is Bhumihar and Yadav dominated. Similarly, Kushwaha and Yadavs have dominance in Samastipur. In Madhya Pradesh’s Bhind, the population of Thakurs and Brahmins is twice that of Dalits. 

On the contrary, the seats where the population of Dalits is more, the seats there are in the unreserved category. It also has hot seats like Aurangabad in Bihar, Rae Bareli in UP. 

Aurangabad district of Bihar has the largest number of Dalits after Gaya, but this seat is unreserved. Usually the leaders of the Rajput fraternity are elected as MPs from here. UP’s Rae Bareli is considered the stronghold of the Congress family.

Political experts say that due to this theory of delimitation, there is a dearth of outspoken Dalit MPs in the country. Dalit MPs keep silence on big issues due to political equation. 

It was also seen during the thrashing of Dalits in Una, the Rohita Vemula suicide case and the Atrocities Act. Most of the MPs were seen doing damage control in this matter. 

Interestingly, despite the majority of Dalits on general seats, Dalits do not become MPs from here. In 2014 and 2019, Dalits could not win even a single seat outside the reserve.

Muslims do not reserve seats for more than 50 percent
There are 9 Lok Sabha seats in Bengal, Assam, Bihar and Jammu and Kashmir, where the population of Muslims is more than 50 percent. Despite this, these seats have not been reserved for Muslims.

Recently the Commission had recommended reservation of 2 seats for Kashmiri Pandits in the delimitation of Jammu and Kashmir. Many Muslim organizations have also been demanding reservation of seats for Muslims in the same way. 

In the report of Justice Rajendra Sachar Committee constituted by the Central Government in 2005 and later in the report of Ranganath Mishra Committee, it was also recommended to reserve seats for Muslims. It was said that like Dalit-Tribals, Muslim majority seats should also be reserved, so that the share can increase rapidly. 

The Sachar Committee had also instructed to reserve Muslim majority seats in the SC category in the delimitation. However, there is no change in the situation even after 18 years of the Sachar Committee Report. 

Asad Malik says, ‘The talk of giving reservation to Muslims was raised even during the making of the constitution, but it was postponed.’

Why question the Commission, 2 reasons…

1. Cannot challenge the delimitation in the court- Supreme Court lawyer Dhruv Gupta says, delimitation cannot be challenged in any court. According to him, it is clearly written in Section 10(2) of the Delimitation Act that the decision of the commission will be binding. 

According to a former Election Commission official, the Delimitation Commission submits a report on two aspects after a detailed study. Firstly, how many seats will be there in the Lok Sabha or Vidhansabha and secondly, what will be the structure of these seats?

After deciding this a draft is published. After this, the commission listens to the questions raised by the representatives and common citizens and then solves them.

2. There is no fixed rule for Dalit reserved seat- Former Chief Election Commissioner SY Qureshi says- If the policy of tribal seat reserve, the same policy is followed in the seat reserve of Dalits, then there will not be much controversy.

According to Qureshi, seats are reserved on the basis of the number of tribals, while seats for Dalits are decided on the basis of rotation. 

Qureshi further says- It has always been a complaint that where the Muslim population is more, the population there is shifted during delimitation. Because of this it becomes difficult to elect those Muslims. This manipulation is dangerous for democracy.