Editorial: The Politics Of Procreation

Chief Minister MK Stalin of Tamil Nadu is not exactly known for cracking jokes. He’s a straight-shooter, the kind of politician who picks his words carefully and doesn’t let them stray into the realms of comedy. So, imagine the surprise when, at a mass wedding, Stalin encouraged newlywed couples to go forth and multiply. And by multiply, we mean seriously multiply. His suggestion, wrapped in humour, could be interpreted as a call for, oh, maybe 16 children per family. No small task, that.

Now, Stalin is a self-declared atheist, so no one can accuse him of quoting from Genesis: “I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore.” But his call to arms (or strollers, as it were) seemed to have landed well. Reports suggest that the couples chuckled, perhaps already picturing their tiny one-room homes stuffed with kids like sardines in a can. Just imagine the bunk beds! But there’s method in the madness. Tamil Nadu was one of the few states that took the “two for us” family planning slogan to heart. So much so, the population growth slowed, which seemed great until it began to affect the state’s representation in the Lok Sabha. Fewer people, fewer seats—simple math.

This led to a demand for freezing seat allocation based on the 1971 census. That’s how Tamil Nadu still holds 39 seats while Bihar, bursting at the seams with 1.5 times the population, has only 40. Now, with whispers that the Modi government may lift this freeze, Tamil Nadu could find itself severely outnumbered. Couples in the state might need to start pulling double shifts just to keep up. Never mind that Mother Earth is already groaning under India’s population boom!