Creation of new states threatens India's unity: N Santosh Hegde

Former Supreme Court Judge N Santosh Hegde has warned creation of more States is bound to threaten the unity of India and deal a body blow to the country's diversity. Speaking to PTI here, Hegde, a key member of Team Anna, said formation of Telangana would spawn demand for statehood in some other parts of India, noting movements among others in Vidarbha and Assam, and BSP supremo Mayawati pushing for dividing Uttar Pradesh into four.

He said with Telangana going separate he won't be surprised if in Karnataka there is demand for statehood for regions which are known as Bombay-Karnataka and Hyderabad-Karnataka.

"I think we should stop further thinking in terms of division at all. It's not in the interest of our unity", said the former Karnataka Lokayukta, who uncovered a huge illegal mining scam.

"Let me warn one thing. Ultimately, we are not united because of a particular cause - like religion, custom, culture or language. No. We are unity in diversity. Now, if you go on dividing that diversity more and more, then that's bound threaten the unity of our country", he said. "Biggest mistake we made was in 1956 - linguistic division (of States). Now we are compounding it", Hegde said. He alleged that statehood-for-Telangana was fuelled by "people who have vested interests".

He noted that the announcement on Telangana came "right on the eve of 2014 elections" even though the issue was simmering for the past 20 years. "Don't you foresee what will be the consequences?" Hegde said a separate state also means huge expenditure in terms of having "new bureaucracy", high-court and other infrastructure.

"If you keep on doing it (creating more States), they may have to go to the district level", he added sarcastically. He found the argument that creation of Telangana is necessary as people from far-away parts of united Andhra Pradesh found it extremely hard to travel to capital Hyderabad for official work, redressing grievances and things of that nature, as one that defies logic. "This is no argument at all", Hegde said, noting that there are officers at every level who are independent to take decisions and implement them. If that was the argument, how can people of Kanyakumari go to New Delhi, which is the administrative capital of Union of India, he countered.