History repeats itself: Now, BJP stands accused of riding roughshod over states’ rights

New Delhi, April 17 (SocialNews.XYZ) A number of issues between the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre and the opposition-ruled states are leading to friction with the BJP, which once constantly criticised the Congress for hurting the federal system in the country, now being accused of doing the same.

In an earlier article in February, Ramachandra Guha wrote that the rejection of Republic Day floats designed by the governments of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and West Bengal was seen as a symbolic attack on those states, which are ruled by parties other than the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Several Opposition MPs vigorously attacked the Centre for undermining the rights of the states in violation of constitutional norms and principles, he added.

"However, with the BJP achieving a majority in the general elections of 2014 and 2019, Indian federalism has, once again, come under threat. In the seven-and-a-half years that Narendra Modi has been in office, Article 356 has been invoked eight times, or roughly once a year. When judged by this single criteria, Modi may be said to be more respectful of the rights of states than Indira Gandhi. Yet, in other ways, he has undermined and weakened Indian federalism far more than any previous prime minister," Guha wrote.

Guha wrote that important policies are framed and major laws passed without consulting the states that have to implement them. This was most strikingly true of the (now withdrawn) farm laws, of course, but policies and laws relating to such vital subjects as education, co-operatives, banking and so on were decided beforehand by the Centre and then sought to be imposed on the states.

Although law and order is a state subject, Guha said the Modi government has done all it can to undermine the capacity and autonomy of state governments to enforce their writ in the territories under their legal jurisdiction. The free and almost reckless invocation of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act to suppress political dissent (rather than to identify actual terrorists) and the sending of the National Investigation Agency (set up in the wake of the 2008 Mumbai attacks for a limited, and specific, purpose) into state after state are examples of how the Modi government seeks to centralise punitive powers in its hands, he added.

Designed to handle specific disasters in a time-bound fashion, the NDMA has become in this government's hands merely another tool to increase its powers over the states, he said.

The Modi government has used investigative agencies such as the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Enforcement Directorate to weaken and threaten parties and state governments opposed to it, Guha said.

In so systematically attacking the state governments opposed to it, the Modi regime has sought to exact insidious loyalty tests from officers of the Indian Police Service and the Indian Administrative Service, he added.

The promotion, at vast expense and with enormous amounts of institutional energy, of a personality cult of the prime minister, also weakens the idea of India as a federal republic in which the states and the Centre are equal partners, Guha said.

Speaking in the Rajya Sabha in the February session, Prime Minister Narendra Modi lashed out at the Sonia Gandhi-led party for delivering lectures on federalism, as per media reports.

PM Modi noted that when Congress was in power at the Centre for decades, several chief ministers were removed over 'petty issues'. The Prime Minister went on to name Congress' Chief Ministers from Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka and underscored that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) doesn't work with such a narrow mindset, the reports said.

One of the former Chief Ministers that the Prime Minister mentioned in his speech to the Rajya Sabha was former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister T. Anjaiah, who was ousted because then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's son, Rajiv Gandhi did not like the arrangements at the airport. Prime Minister Modi said, "Have we forgotten those days when CMs would be ousted owing to small incidents at the airport? Many leaders of this House know very well what happened with former Andhra Pradesh CM T. Anjaiah Ji. He was ousted because the PM's son didn't like the arrangements at the airport. This had hurt the sentiments of crores of people of Andhra Pradesh," the reports said.

The Prime Minister underscored that "We do not see a conflict between national targets and regional aspirations. We maintain that we must address regional aspirations with the utmost respect and resolve issues. India will progress when we address regional aspirations keeping in mind development. When states progress, the country prospers," the reports added.

K.K. Kailash of the Department of Political Science, University of Hyderabad said in a February article that the One India framework has allowed the BJP to simplify and rationalise complex tax and reform policy measures and frame them in terms of being universally beneficial. While they are supposedly based on sound administrative and economic judgement, this goes against the principle that in federations states could be the 'laboratories of democracy'. The framework has a top-down agenda and does not necessarily allow the best solutions to emerge since it assumes that the Centre knows best. As states are always looking for money, they are incentivised into accepting central schemes even if they have other ideas. Policy centralisation reduces the space for innovation at the state level and ignores the possibility that states have better information about what works locally. To make matters worse, consultations between the centre and states have been few and far between, he added.

Kailash said similarly, the idea of simultaneous elections is a unitarian proposal piggybacking on economic logic. It ignores the fact that in a federation, states have their priorities and, as autonomous units, are definitely not subordinate to the central government.

The One Nation, One Election idea attempts to change the electoral logic of different states and artificially manufacture a uniform electoral agenda. Simultaneous elections are a technocratic solution that disrespects democracy by viewing elections as a burden and an impediment to efficiency and "good governance". The One India thesis fits with the party agenda on national unity, uniformity and homogenisation. But it is a frontal assault on the federal idea and does not live up to the multiple values that federalism seeks to achieve, Kailash said.

Source: IANS