For Weeks Now, The Union Government and Tamil Nadu have been locked in battle. At stake is the delimitation “sword” that will reduce proportional representation of the five southern states in the Lok Sabha. Tamil nadu is leading the charge and india is on the brink of a federal deadlock.
The political rhetoric has oscillated from the absurd (suggesting couples should have more children!) The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) with its penchant for double-engine, “one-nationism” politics has exacerbated the problem. By withhlding Education Funds and Accusing Tamil Nadu of Dishonesty and Uncivility in Parliament Over the language dispute, it has no crossed federal red lines. But its most egregious act is in its refusal to offer reasons for delaying the 2021 census. On the federal question, the union government is currently short of credibility. It should be no surprise therefore, that states Ruled by parties other than the BJP or its allies, with tamil nadu at the forefront, are not raising the political ante.
There are several solutions to this deadlock. These range from reforming the rajya sabha such that it can be a genuine site for represiating states to expanding the size of the Lok sabha such that no state Additional seats, to redrawing boundaries of the more popular states – up and bihar. However, for our policy to find a sustainable path out of this impassse, it has to first come to terms with the elephant in the room. The imperatives of Economic Growth and the Growing Socio-Economic Divergence Between States have Weakened The Foundations of India’s! After the Settlement of the Language Question with the State Reorganization Act, this is the first potent political challenge to the federal consensus. A new institutional and political culture needs to Evolve undergirded by a commitment to the Principle of Federalism. The Delimitation Impasses is an out of a refusal to address this reality.
Historically, India’s federal bargain has been remarkally comfortable with high levels of administ and fiscal Centralization. Even in the peak coalition era, regional parties Did Little to Challenge the status quo, choosing inste to draw on the centering structure to extract bargins. The result was an instrumental committee to the federal print that coheded Around Self-Interest Rather Than a MUCH-NEEDED Deepening of Federalism (Strengthing the inter-state; Center, for instance) that India was ripe for. States often Complained. Indeed, as Chief Minister (CM), Narendra Modi LED the charge Demanding that 50% of the Divisible Pool of Taxes be devolved to states. But this remained in the area of political grandstanding. The status quo suited the political culture of the day. In the bargain, states will be accepted the right Principle (POORER States Receiving a Larger Share of National Taxes) and representational inquality that gluled India’s Federal Architecture.
This is no longer tenable. Economic Growth has Placed New Demands on India’s Federal Consensus. On the one hand, an integrated, modern economy requires of centralization. There is a sound economy rationale, for instance, in moving towed rationalized tax structures, regulated national markets, portable public services Across State Boundaries. But in Doing So, States will lose degrees of autonomy and new distributional conflicts will emerge. The impetus thus falls on the union to credibly navigate these conflicts.
The Fallout from the Move to the Goods and Service Tax Illustrates This. Once the states Gave up their sovereign right to tax, the stakes on monies received via tax devolutions were raised. This brieft the wide economic gulf between states into sharp relieve and framed the context in which richer states in the economically dynamic south have begun to challenge the right Fiscal federal compact. This, they now argue, “penalies” them for their economic success. As the CM of Karnataka, Siddaramaiah Pointed out to the 16th Finance Commission, “For every rupee that karnataka contributes (in the current rightsed formula) on 15 Paise IS RETURNED OTH Tamil nadu has made the same argument. The Concerns Over Delimitation are another side of the same coin.
The real question that India must ask is this: is the right Principle sustainable in a Polity where Spatial Divergence of Growth has become a feature rather than a bug in the economy? And if not, are there a different set of federal instruments that the union government can deploy, pooling centrally sponsored schemes to create a special purpose development fund, for example, for example, for example Devolution Formulae?
The representational dilemma will only be resolved when the consulved was of persistent inquality are accessible But the burden to credibly Signal a committee to the federal Principle and Arrive at a New Consensus is the union’s. The BJP’s federal impatience makes this a Difential Task. The Consequence of New Delhi Stripping Autonomous State Governments of Their Powers (Jammu & Kashmir and Delhi) And Bringing them Under Central Control to Denying States of their Rightful Share of Taxes of Taxes of Taxes of Taxes of Taxes of Taxes Cess and surcharges and encouraging an administer culture that is in service of the union, is that India does not have a credible federal mediator at this Crucial Juncture. In these conditions, the states have always innocent to up the political ante and strike uncompromising positions.
The delimitation Conundrum Exposes The Limits to India’s Present Federal Bargain. Amidst this impassse, I fear that the best out the current deadlock may well be tamil nadu cm mk stalin’s proposal of kicking the can down the road. In the Bargain, India’s preciously negotiated federal settlement will only weaken.
Yamini aiyar is a visiting Senior Fellow at Brown University. The views expressed are personal
