The issue ... is not Vananchal, it is not even small states; it is governance ... If statehood is conferred on south Bihar, the rest of the province will go bankrupt. The ... belt contributes 70 per cent of Bihar's revenue. However, only 15 per cent of this money is reinvested in the region. Vananchalis live amid almost half of India's mineral resources - but also amid grinding poverty. Ethnic aspiration, drain of wealth and administrative convenience make for too compelling a logic. Laloo can delay Vananchal, not deny it.

... Unwieldy size is not the exclusive prerogative of  Bihar. In north India itself, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh are similar victims of geography. The formation of Uttaranchal and Chhatisgarh amounts to merely tinkering with the problem. In Uttar Pradesh there have been sporadic demands for Poorvanchal in the east and Rohilkhand in the west ... In the south, there are regional inequalities in Andhra Pradesh. There is a case for a second States Reorganisation Commission (SRC). (In) 43 years since the first SRC submitted its report, India has changed a lot ... The new SRC should be asked to redraw the internal boundaries of India using only the administrative criterion ...