The unparliamentary flare-up over the Indian Maritime University Bill between CPM and DMK MPs was not just a passing embarrassment for the ruling coalition at the Centre. It speaks of a syndrome that is increasingly with us. Parties across the ideological spectrum find political and electoral pay-offs in making narrowly regional assertions. And this holds as true for the DMK in Tamil Nadu — India’s first regional party to be voted to power — as it does for the CPM. For all its claims to the more spacious platform, the communist party identifies closely with the region that has played host to it. Too closely — as the ugly Kolkata versus Chennai spat showed us on Tuesday in Parliament.

A distinction is in order. India’s political history has shown how regionalism and the state’s large-hearted response to its demands can in fact strengthen the ‘national’, imbue it with greater legitimacy. From the demand of the Telugu-speaking residents of the erstwhile Madras Presidency which led to the redrawing of the map of India along linguistic lines in the mid-fifties, to the most recent carving out of the new states of Uttaranchal, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh in response to sub-regional assertions — has been a uniquely Indian success story of co-option and accommodation. There was a vicious period in the ‘80s when the cauldron boiled over, especially in Punjab, but those secessionist fires were put out. In fact, in the ‘90s and after, admiring observers have called for a new vocabulary to fit the Indian experience — one that disassociates ‘regionalism’ from all secessionist connotations. Regional parties are now respectable, much-sought-after players on the national stage. They have re-defined the national, brought it closer to the people. But that story may be acquiring an unsavoury twist.

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