New Delhi: Asserting that big states cannot be governed well, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh today said even if BJP were to come to power in Uttar Pradesh, it would find the northern state unmanageable.
Interestingly, he also said that among the smaller states, Congress-governed Uttarakhand was not “better-governed” while BJP-ruled Chhattisgarh was.
“In theory small states should be better-governed, should perform better. Is Uttarakhand better governed? No. Is Chhattisgarh better governed? Yes. Is Jharkhand better? No. Is Himachal better? Yes. So the evidence in India is mixed. It’s not a guarantee that small states can be governed. But large states like UP can never be governed,” he said.
“UP is ungovernable. Thanks to demonetisation even if Modi gets a majority in UP, he will not be able to manage the state,” he said.
Ramesh noted that in his book ‘Old History, New Geography’ he says that Congress made a mistake by bifurcating Andhra Pradesh and should have bifurcated Uttar Pradesh instead.
The Rajya Sabha MP was speaking during a panel discussion on his book at Tata Literature Festival here.
The book is about the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh and creation of Telangana. He spoke in detail about the history of the state and the circumstances which led to bifurcation.