Think small

Politics apart, the unwieldiness and ungovernability of UP is very unsettling in today’s India, in which federalism has gained a deep and meaningful economic hue. States today no longer meet the social and economic aspirations of their people through handouts from the Centre. For resources and for planning, they are more self-reliant. The absence in UP of craftiness and pro-activity in reforming administration and economy is reflected, importantly, in the relative flexibility and initiative in Uttarakhand, carved out of UP less than a decade ago. State reorganisation is in need of an updated paradigm. Many aspirations for separate statehood are not so strongly driven by ethnicity or language. The demands are more on geographical considerations. And these demands are far-flung, from a demand for Telangana to be carved out of Andhra, a Vidarbha out of Maharashtra, a Bundelkhand out of MP, and a Koshala out of Orissa.

Arguments are routinely made for and against small states, and there is enough experience to show for either side. But, for UP the deal should be clinched by the simple fact that political leaderships and administrations in smaller daughter states would be more easily made accountable.