A Drop in the Ocean

Is the Centre going out of its way to find means to punish “disobedient” states? The fund and project allocation pattern proves this

- Gopakumar Mukundan

THE Indian federal structure is unique. India is not a federation of independent federal units. Instead, it must be understood that the Constitution, drafted at a time when the nation bore the scars of Partition, accommodated the need for a strong national government.

At the same time, the vision of the framers of the Constitution was evident in the discussions of the Constituent Assembly. The essence of the Constitution lies in the fact that it is a blend of diverse considerations and statuses, incorporating the innumerable diversities of this vast nation. The special statuses given to several states and the recognition of various languages and faiths are all hallmarks of India's federal framework.

A recent Supreme Court observation in a GST-related case is highly relevant in this context. The court noted that uncooperative federalism is as significant as cooperative federalism.

Indian federalism is a dialogue between cooperative and uncooperative federalism where the federating units are at liberty to use different means of persuasion, from collaboration to contestation.

—Union of India & Anr Vs M/s Mohit Minerals Pvt Ltd, 2022

The Supreme Court upholds the right of states to dissent, take different stances and contest Union government policies. However, the Union government is adopting a strategy to bypass this right by employing various tactics. They do not accept the principle of a “bunch of divergences”. The idea of a country that preserves its divergences does not sit well with the ruling authorities of the Union government. Their agenda is to subjugate the nation to a single political authority by disregarding and suppressing not just cultural and linguistic diversities but also developmental disparities. To achieve this, the Union government is using financial centralisation, unilateral administrative decisions and strategies for political centralisation.

Multiple Strategies, One Goal