Federalism in the Indian context has always been a complex and contested space, involving give and take between the Centre and the States. Despite the constitutional and regulatory frameworks of the nation supporting the division of powers between the Centre and the States through the Seventh Schedule, specifying the Union, State and Concurrent Lists, pork barrel politics exerts an outsized influence on governance decisions across the board in the modern era, and resource sharing is often premised on currying political favour.

Beyond contestation in the sphere of policymaking, there is now an existential challenge to the representational power of States within the Indian Union, specifically in the Lok Sabha, in the form of a future delimitation exercise. Will this exercise, now gathering steam and likely to be implemented in the aftermath of the next Census, lead to States that have brought down their respective population growth rates face a punitive reduction in the number of Members of Parliament that they can send to New Delhi? Will the fact that these States have also broadly been top performers in terms of economic growth and all-round development be factored into the calculation of how many MPs will be assigned to each of them?

In the arena of pure politics too, the intensity of competition has reached unprecedented levels, in terms of the BJP seeking to expand its already-broad footprint into States such as Tamil Nadu, Kerala and West Bengal, and deepen its grip on the political system in States such as Karnataka. Regional and other Opposition political parties in these States have offered a stout defence of a different political ideology to muscular nationalism. At the heart of this hard-fought political battle, playing out in every constituency of India, is a deeper question about identity politics that goes to the very soul of the pluralistic vision of Indian democracy – will it remain a country that tolerates diversity in religion, language, caste, and more, or will homogenising socio-political forces win the day?

To debate these transformational questions at the heart of India’s democracy, The Hindu Huddle, which will be held in Bengaluru on May 9 and 10, will host a panel of senior Ministers to debate the topic, “More than a Sum of Parts: Reimagining India’s Federalism.”

Helming this discussion will be Palanivel Thiaga Rajan, Minister of Information Technology and Digital Services for Tamil Nadu, Priyank Kharge, Minister for IT-BT, Rural Development and Panchayat Raj for Karnataka, and P. Rajeeve, Minister for Law, Industries and Coir for Kerala. Narayan Lakshman, Curator of The Hindu Huddle and Opinion Editor, The Hindu, will moderate the discussion.

If you have any questions that you would like our moderator to ask the panelists, write to us at huddle@thehindu.co.in