Unpopular Opinion: India Should Have Fewer MPs, Not More
Last month, Indian politics was buzzing with discussions around delimitation and the proposal to increase Lok Sabha seats through the Women’s Reservation Bill. India currently has 543 MPs, and there are discussions about increasing this number by nearly 50%.
But I’ve been thinking differently about this.
India is still a developing country with limited administrative and financial resources. Simply increasing the number of representatives may not solve the real problem of governance. Even after 76 years of independence, many people at the last mile still remain untouched by basic government services and schemes.
What India needs today is not necessarily more politicians, but stronger execution capacity on the ground.
We already have a three-tier democratic system with MPs, MLAs, and local bodies. The bigger issue is that government offices — especially in rural areas — often remain understaffed, dysfunctional, or inaccessible. Increasing the strength of administration, field officers, teachers, healthcare workers, and local governance staff would probably create more impact than increasing the number of MPs.
In fact, my opinion is the opposite of the current debate: India should have fewer MPs, not more. Imagine a system with only 100 national representatives focused purely on national policymaking and accountability.
And instead of seat allocation based heavily on population, representation could be based more on equal geographic regions. Population-driven politics often pushes parties toward caste and religious polarization, demographic calculations, and vote-bank politics rather than governance.
Today, Parliament often looks like 543 people creating noise, while real issues get buried. A smaller, more accountable group of representatives may actually improve responsibility and transparency. With fewer representatives, it becomes harder to hide behind the crowd and easier for citizens to hold leaders accountable.
Just a thought — maybe India doesn’t need more representatives. Maybe it needs better governance.