Federal Issues in the Indian Polity have come to the fore in recent years – Nalineesh Chand
“United States of America is a Federation whereas India is Union of States”
A Federation is a country (like United States) wherein States have full Operational Autonomy and are not dependent on the Union Government for their needs, whereas Union is a country (like India) wherein States have Limited Operational Autonomy (There is Division of Power between Centre & States) and are dependent on the Union for their needs.
The type of government a country will have largely depends on history of its Evolution. As we are aware that India was ruled by British for nearly 200 years and hence it would not be surprising to have the elements of British Rule still prevailing in India. Rule of Law, Parliamentary form of Government, etc. are some of the features of Indian Constitution but derived from the legacy British rule.
More important than the British Rule, It was the role played by the leaders of our Freedom Struggle, who played a larger role in Uniting the Country and avoided a situation like that of Erstwhile USSR, which was a federation but has broken into number of Countries. It would be unjust not to mention name of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, who is also known as the IRON MAN of India, who played a major role in Uniting India at the time of Partition.
At the time of handing over the reins to India, British had given the option to princely states to either Join India or Pakistan or remain Independent. Many ruler of Princely States were of the view that their power would be diminished if they joined any of the two countries, hence they preferred to remain non-aligned. However it was due to Patel that the Balkanization of India was avoided as he convinced these princely states that managing a small state without dependence on a big country like India would be very difficult for them, financially as well as operationally. The only state which could not be included is Jammu & Kashmir, which is the Bone of Contention for the Two Countries ( India and Pakistan) even after 65 years of its Partition.
As per the Article 1 of the Constitution of India, India (or Bharat) is Union of 28 States and 7 Union Territories. First Schedule of the constitution mentions the list of all the states and Union Territories. The Constitution makers of India had spent 2 years 11 Months and 17 days before finalizing the Constitution. This large amount of time was spent in framing the constitution so that “Document of the Nation” includes the opinion of all sections of the Society. There were numerous debate in the Constituent Assembly on the type of Government (Federal or Unitary), Legislature ( Bicameral or Unicameral), Distribution of powers etc. It was then felt that neither Federal nor Unitary type of Government would be suitable for India. Hence a mixed of the two types of Government was chosen for Governance of India.
Constitution of India clearly specifies the role of Union Government and State Governments, it also specifies the state and union relations. There is clear division of subjects over which the states and the union can make policies, there are around 97 Subjects mentioned in the 7th Schedule of Constitution over which Union has Control (Union List), around 66 subjects mentioned in 7th Schedule of the Constitution where States have the policy making powers (State List) and a list of 47 subjects on which both Centre as well as States can make policy (Concurrent List). As per the Indian Constitution, residual powers lie with the Union.
A federation like that of US, has given all the powers to the States, wherein the residents of the States also have their own citizenship, that is not true with India, wherein we have only one citizenship (that of the Country) as a whole, and anyone has right to settle, travel anywhere in India ( with the exception of J&K) without any restriction. A federation functions like a joint mechanism of individual countries, whereas Union functions like a joint mechanism of various states, wherein states are dependent on the Union for certain important Issues.
As already mentioned above, the constitution has clarified the role of Union Government & role of State Governments. However, it has also listed specific cases (like that of Emergency, when two states jointly Agree, etc) where Union can legislate on the State matters. It appears that in India, the powers are more Unitary than Federal, which means that there is a higher tilt of power in favour of Union Government than the State Governments.
Let us Understand the Federal Vs Union debate with two example of Teesta River & NCTC ( National Counter Terrorism Centre).
Last year, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh along with Chief Minister of West Bengal Mamta Bannerji had a planned visit to Bangladesh to resolve various issues, including the Teesta River Water Agreement. However a day before PM was to leave for Bangladesh, CM of West Bengal publicly announced that she would not be traveling to Bangladesh as West Bengal required the water of the River Teesta. In the end, PM traveled without West Bengal CM to Bangladesh and also could not sign the Teesta Treaty. This had caused a huge embarrassment for the PM world over.
In the month of February 2012, Guidelines were issued by the Union Home Ministry about NCTC (National Counter Terrorism Centre) to be implemented from 1st March 2012. Most of the Non-Congress States had opposed the move as they claimed that the Union Government is damaging the “Federal structure of India Polity”. These states were of the view that, since “Law & Order” is a state subject, the states have the full authority to legislate on the subject. However since the issue deals with “Terrorism”, the union also has the authority to legislate, but there were two specific provisions, which they viewed were against the principle of our Constitution.
Firstly the Authority under the NCTC had the “Powers to Arrest” in case of suspicion; this is the power currently available only with the States & hence was not acceptable to them. Secondly, the NCTC was placed under IB (Intelligence Bureau), which works under the Ministry of Home Affairs & hence indirectly a part of police functioning would be under the control of Union Ministry for Home Affairs.
Our Home Minister, P.Chidambaram was trying to emulate the idea from America’s Counter Terrorism Centre in India but neither the American NCTC has the power to arrest nor it works under American IB. It functions as a separate body. Even after lot of consultations with CMs, Interventions by PM, the states could not be convinced and NCTC was put on hold.
If we try and understand the reasons for federal issues coming to fore now, the two reasons for the same are “Power Equation at the Union & States” & “Coalition Governments“.
It is not that the Union has suddenly started legislating on state matters, since ours is not a Federation, the Union has, in the past legislated on various matters on State list, but issues were not raised by the States, because the ruling party in the state as well as at the Union was always the same, but Power Equations have changed now. For the first 40 years of Independence, Union as well as State Governments was rule by Congress, only in late 1980s congress started losing its hold on States and Union. Even today on the issue of NCTC, the major opposition was by Orissa (ruled by BJD) & Tamil Nadu (AIADMK), who are not the part of Congress.
Secondly, no single party has been able to form the Government at the Centre and also in most of the States. This has diluted the powers of the Union Government and at the same time empowered the Regional Parties of various States. Example in case is Trinamool Congress (TMC) which is an alliance of UPA(United Progressive Alliance) at the Union & is also ruling in West Bengal. Hence the regional parties (which are supporting the Union Government) are Leveraging their support by raising various issues concerning their states.
This era, appears to be Initiation of an era of federal issue, as the coalition era and multi party government at Union and States have just began, the fractured the mandate of people would be, higher would be possibility of clashes between the centre and states. The only resolution of such issues in India, is a process of consultation & Negotiation. Union Governments, need to realize that gone are those days, wherein, the decisions taken by them were binding on the states (since states were ruled by same party), In order to ensure that policies of Union are accepted by States, the consultations need to start well in advance & announcement of a policy should be only made by discussing with States and after sorting out any issues, to avoid situation like NCTC, in the future.
On the other hand, States need to realize that Constitution has enshrined a greater role for the Centre in Policy Making. On certain important issues (like that of Terrorism, Internal Security, Food Security, Foreign Policy, etc.) playing a political card and gaining TRP would result in the Policy Paralysis of the Government and in-turn states would also be loser in the long run.
Hence it would be appropriate to conclude that since India is more Unitary than federal, there are bound to be federal issues & the only way to resolve them is to recognize them and work on them by consultation between the states and the union & states need to support the union on national issues, instead of politicizing it.
