San Francisco, May 10 -- A sharp debate over delimitation and political representation unfolded at the Stanford India Conference in San Francisco, with Congress MP Shashi Tharoor cautioning that southern states could feel "disenfranchised" if parliamentary seats are redistributed solely based on population growth, while BJP leader K Annamalai argued that northern states "naturally deserve" a larger share of MPs under the upcoming census-linked exercise.

The exchange of remarks was held at the roundtable on 'India, That is Bharat: Growth Governance and Identity' at Stanford India Conference.

Tharoor said that due to this 'North-South' gap, someone at different intervals would want to pass a law saying that Hindi be a national language, w...