Set up commission to carve out new states: Varshney

The Centre should set up a commission and evolve certain principles on formation of new states in the country, noted political scientist Ashutosh Varshney has said.

Delivering a lecture on "Indian Federalism: Performance and Challenges" here last evening, Varshney, a professor of Brown University in the US, said language "is not an issue at all for formation of new states now".

The Centre should set up a commission and evolve certain principles to form new states out of Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra, he said.

New states could be formed on two principles -- neglect and deprivation of certain regions and lack of governance -- Varshney said and felt that Telangana could be carved out of Andhra Pradesh on the basis of "neglect" of the region by the state government.

Similarly, new states such as Harit Pradesh and Bundelkhand could be carved out of Uttar Pradesh "on the basis of lack of governance by state government," he said.

He said unlike other states in the country, Tamil Nadu has derived maximum benefits from the Centre because it was part of the government for a long time. "Whichever party comes to power in Tamil Nadu, it becomes the part of the coalition government at the Centre and therefore it gets maximum funding and projects from the Centre," he said.

The Tamil Nadu government had not generally complained to the Centre about not receiving funds or projects, Varshney said. Leaders from the state have bagged good portfolios in Union Cabinet, he said.

Varshney, who has authored several books on Indian federalism, said terrorism was posing a new and serious challenge to federalism in the country and there was a need to arrive at a political consensus to establish a new national agency to counter cross-border terrorism.

"Security is the most pressing issue today for Indian polity," he said at the lecture organised by Bangalore University and Bangalore-based Institute for Social and Economic Change (ISEC). He appealed to all parties to evolve a consensus for setting up of the national-level agency on the lines of the federal agency in the US to counter terrorism.

The existing bodies such as National Security Guards and National Investigation Agency have no powers to function independently in states without the cooperation of the latter, he noted. Political consensus needs to be evolved to deal with federal crimes, he said.