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GS Paper: GS2

  • Taiwan: a role model for pandemic management

    As many nations struggle to keep COVID-19 infection numbers down, the island of Taiwan presents an example of how to be prepared in the event of a pandemic. As the global total of infections has neared 700,000, with over 30,000 deaths, Taiwan’s count stood at 300, with only 5 deaths.

    When you read through this article, try and map the best practices which could be incorporated in India. You might have to tweak a few. UPSC Mains may ask a question on “what could be done better etc.” and this is where you shine!

    Taiwan Model of Healthcare Management

    • Located less than 150 kilometres from the original viral source – China – Taiwan has seen far fewer cases of the coronavirus in the past month, with a much lower infection rate.
    • It is also worth noting the practices utilized by Taiwan’s hospitals as they seek to curb the virus and protect patients and medics.

    Following were the not so exceptional measures which helped Taiwan authorities contain coronavirus:

    1) Smaller staff groups

    • One of the early steps taken was the reduction of the workgroup sizes within medical facilities.
    • This reduces the risk of a community spread within the hospital emerging from infected patients being treated.
    • Depending on the size of the staff handling an area of the hospital, and the number of patients being overseen there, one infection could jeopardize the safety of an entire ward.

    2) Traffic control in hospitals

    • Hospitals were establishing separate entrances and exits for in- and out-patients to help prevent the spread of infection via regular hospital traffic.
    • In effect, hospital entry began to resemble airport customs, with visitors passing through a temperature checkpoint and showing IDs before admittance.

    3) Maintaining a high bed-per-capita ratio

    • Many countries have found that they do not have nearly enough hospital beds to care for patients suffering from a highly infectious disease like COVID-19.
    • In response, Taiwan has nearly 1,000 negative pressure isolation rooms (an isolation technique used in hospitals to prevent cross-contamination from room to room) available, with the capacity to add significantly more through room reconfigurations.
    • This is a remarkably high number, given the relatively small population of the island, and speaks to the country’s preparedness and advanced medical infrastructure.

    4) Best public health policy

    • Finally, Taiwan has benefited greatly from the close coordination between its hospitals and central government.
    • Within the country’s nationalized healthcare system, every citizen and resident is assigned a health card, embedded with a computer chip reflecting their identity and medical history.

    Significance of the Taiwanese model

    • Taiwan’s biggest success can be attributed to how ready the country and its hospitals were from Day-1, while other states were still assessing whether the virus was a threat to them at all.
    • Many of these countermeasures can be easily duplicated by India.
    • However, the willingness and effectiveness with which doctors and medical officials have worked to cooperate with each other and the public is a testament to the country’s smart and rational approach to healthcare and disease prevention.

  • Covid-19 donations to CM Relief Fund won’t qualify as CSR

    The corporate affairs ministry has clarified that COVID-19 donations to CM Relief Fund won’t qualify as CSR contributions.

    Contributions considered under CSR

    • According to the ministry, contributions made to the State Disaster Management Authority to combat COVID-19 would qualify as CSR expenditure.
    • The contributions by companies to PM-CARES Fund to tackle the pandemic would be considered as CSR.
    • Ex-gratia payments made to temporary, casual and daily wage workers by companies will be considered as CSR expenditure under the company’s law, provided that such payments are over and above disbursement of wages.
    • The contribution towards ‘Chief Minister’s Relief Fund’ or ‘State Relief Fund for COVID-19’ would not be considered as spending towards CSR work.

    Note: Please remember or make note of the various contributions complying for CSR.

    Back2Basics: CSR in India

    • India is the first country in the world to make corporate social responsibility (CSR) mandatory, following an amendment to the Companies Act, 2013 in April 2014.
    • Prior to that, the CSR clause was voluntary for companies, though it was mandatory to disclose their CSR spending to shareholders.
    • Businesses can invest their profits in areas such as education, poverty, gender equality, and hunger as part of any CSR compliance.
    • Under the Companies Act, 2013, certain classes of profitable entities are required to spent at least 2 per cent of their three-year average annual net profit towards CSR activities.
    • Under Section 135 of the Companies Act, 2013, every company having net worth of at least ₹500 crore, turnover of ₹1,000 crore or more, or a minimum net profit of ₹5 crore during the immediately preceding financial year, has to make CSR expenditure.

  • [pib] YUKTI web-portal

    Union Ministry for HRD has launched a web-portal YUKTI (Young India Combating COVID with Knowledge, Technology and Innovation).

    There are various web/portals/apps with peculiar names, ex. DISHA, SWAYAM. Note them down with their one line purpose. UPSC Prelims may quiz you on these.

    YUKTI web-portal

    • YUKTI is a unique portal and dashboard to monitor and record the efforts and initiatives of MHRD.
    • The portal intends to cover the different dimensions of COVID-19 challenges in a very holistic and comprehensive way.
    • The primary aim of the portal is to keep academic community healthy, both physically & mentally and to enable a continuous high-quality learning environment for learners.

    Utility of the portal

    • The portal allows various institutions to share their strategies for various challenges which are there because of the unprecedented situation of COVID-19 and other future initiatives.
    • It will give inputs for better planning and will enable MHRD to monitor effectively its activities for coming six months.
    • It will establish a two-way communication channel between the Ministry of HRD and the institutions so that the Ministry can provide the necessary support system to the institutions.

  • Coronavirus – Health and Governance Issues

  • The new multilateralism

    Context

    As the major global institutions — from the WHO to the WTO — are experiencing unprecedented turmoil India needs to be pragmatic and fleet-footed.

    Reorientation of India’s multilateral strategy

    • As many international institutions, including the World Health Organisation and the United Nations Security Council, come under great stress in the corona crisis, Delhi’s multilateral strategy is going through a rapid reorientation.
    • Realists in Delhi recognise that India’s engagement with the UN is not about the pursuit of some higher ideological calling, but the navigation of hardball geopolitics.

    China’s growing influence and implications for India

    • China’s role on Kashmir question: China repeatedly pressed the UN to discuss the Kashmir question after Delhi changed the constitutional status of the region last August.
    • China avoiding discussion on Covid crisis: But through last month, as the rotating chair of the UNSC, China blocked any discussion of the Covid crisis.
    • Beijing insisted that the crisis was not a matter of international peace and security that the UNSC ought to bother itself with.
    • A mere internal administrative change in Kashmir, Beijing continues to insist, is a grave threat to international peace and security.
    • With its veto power, Beijing can simply prevent the UNSC from doing anything against China.

    Why the credibility of the UN and WHO bureaucracy is under cloud?

    • Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, jumped quickly into the Indo-Pak arguments over Kashmir, and raised concerns over India’s Citizenship Amendment Act and the National Register of Citizens.
    • Guterres went on an extended visit to Pakistan in February and made an ostentatious public offer to mediate between Delhi and Islamabad on Kashmir.
    • But when it comes to China’s role in the spread of the coronavirus, Guterres can’t seem to find the words.
    • The situation at the WHO is a lot worse.
    • The Director-General of WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warns against the dangers of “politicising” the Covid crisis.
    • Many in Europe and the US think that is exactly what Tedros has done at the WHO in the last few months.
    • Breakdown of the multilateral system: What we are witnessing is the breakdown of the multilateral system that emerged from the ashes of the Second World War amidst the deepening contestation between the world’s foremost powers — the US and China.

    NEW MULTILATERALISM adopted by India

    • India’s new multilateralism — as a pragmatic response to external change — involves downplaying some past associations and strengthening new partnerships.
    • Take, for example, two innovations India has made since the end of the Cold War.
    • One was the BRICS forum with Brazil, Russia, China and South Africa and the other was the so-called Quad — a coalition of democracies with Australia, Japan and the US.
    • Actions of BRICS members with respect to India: As India reorders its multilateral priorities amid the corona crisis, the BRICS forum is losing some of its salience and the Quad is gaining traction.
    • Preventing discussion on COVID crisis: Two of India’s partners in BRICS — Russia and South Africa — had reportedly backed the efforts of a third, China, to prevent a discussion of the COVID crisis in the UNSC.
    • If Delhi were sitting in the UNSC right now as a non-permanent member, it would have had every interest in pressing for a discussion of the COVID crisis that has severely damaged India’s economic and social prospects.
    • Meanwhile, India is in regular consultations on managing the corona crisis with the “Quad Plus” grouping that draws in South Korea, Vietnam and New Zealand.
    • Neither the BRICS nor the Quad square with the conventional narrative on India’s multilateralism that was dominated in the past by the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) and the G-77.
    • As circumstances change, India is finding new international partners to secure its interests.

    Context which gave rise to BRICS

    • It started out as a triangular coalition with Russia and China in the mid-1990s.
    • India’s interest in the RIC was borne out of fear of the unipolar moment and Russia’s relentless efforts to draw it into a “strategic triangle” that would resist “American hegemony”.
    • In the early 1990s, Delhi was rather wary of the Bill Clinton Administration’s plans to relieve India of its nuclear and missile programmes.
    • What made matters worse was the Clinton Administration’s formulation that “Kashmir is the world’s most dangerous nuclear flashpoint”.
    • This was not just a description; it was accompanied by a prescription for Delhi: Resolve the Kashmir question by sitting down with Pakistan and the Hurriyat.
    • If Delhi needs any help, Washington will be happy to chip in.
    • Balancing the US pressure: Going into a political tent with Russia and China seemed a sensible bet to ward off American pressures on the nuclear and Kashmir questions.

    Two decades after BRICS-Changes in circumstances

    • Two decades later, we are in a very different place.
    • Take the same two issues — Kashmir and the nuclear programme — that drove India into the BRICS.
    • China’s role on Kashmir issue: It is Beijing that wants the UNSC to take up the Kashmir question, and it is Paris and Washington that are preventing it.
    • NSG membership blocked by China: China has also resolutely blocked India’s effort to become a full member of the global nuclear order by joining the Nuclear Suppliers Group.
    • On the nuclear front too, it was France and the US that helped India break the nuclear blockade.
    • Shielding of Pakistan by China: China shields Pakistan from international pressures to end cross-border terrorism.
    • And it is India’s partners in the West and the Muslim world that are helping Delhi cope better with violent extremism.

    India’s engagement with Europe

    • India has also discovered the new possibilities for engaging Europe in the multilateral arena.
    • Europe as an important partner: If India’s definition of multilateralism — Afro-Asian solidarity — immediately after Independence was defined in opposition to colonial Europe, Delhi now sees Europe as a valuable partner in rearranging the global order.
    • India has joined the “alliance for multilateralism” initiated by Germany and supported by its European partners.

    Conclusion

    India needs all the pragmatism it can muster to pursue its interests in a world where all the major global institutions — from the WHO to the WTO — are experiencing unprecedented turmoil and are heading towards an inevitable restructuring.

  • The law cannot fall silent

    Context

    Amid the many developments in the wake of Covid-19 pandemic one of the facets that is also discussed is-How to read international law in the context of the pointers to the future?

    Constitutional duty regarding international laws

    • Respect for the norms and standards of international law is among the paramount constitutional duties of the state under Article 51 of the Constitution.
    • The duty is regardless of the quibbles on whether the language here refers only to treaty/obligations or also to customary international law.
    • International norms remain relevant: Despite US President Donald Trump’s recent threat of actions against the WHO, international norms, standards, and doctrines remain relevant to making national policy and law.

    Possibility of discussion over pandemic at UNSC

    • The difference between the United Nations as a site of normative discursivity and as a site of doing global power politics is sadly manifest even now in the accelerated pace of the pandemic.
    • Discussion extremely unlikely: President Trump’s insistence on calling it a “Chinese virus” renders it extremely unlikely that the pandemic will be discussed during the current monthly presidency of the UN Security Council by China.
    • Possibility of veto: The threat of veto by China and Russia will always loom large whenever the matter is placed for discussion.

    Role of the UN in the codification of law

    • The UN is also a site of systems of norm enunciation.
    • Along with the International Law Commission, it is responsible for the progressive codification of law.
    • The UN system has developed lawmaking and framework treaties as well as provided auspices for systems of “soft” law that may eventually become the binding law.
    • There are three types of international laws which are described below.

    1. The fundamental overriding principle of international laws

    • Jus cogens: Some of the norms of international law are robust and deeply relevant. For example, the peremptory jus cogens — a few fundamental, overriding principles of international law such as crimes against humanity, genocide, and human trafficking apply to all states.
    • And Article 53 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties goes so far as to declare that a “treaty is void if, at the time of its conclusion, it conflicts with a peremptory norm of general international law”.
    • And even when ingredients of genocide remain difficult to prove, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) has held, in 2007, that states have a duty to prevent and punish acts and omissions that eventually furnish elements for the commission of crime of genocide.
    • Erga omnes: There also exist erga omnes rules prescribing specifically-determined obligations which states owe to the international community as a whole.
    • This was enunciated by the ICJ in 1970 for four situations — the outlawing of acts of aggression; the outlawing of genocide; protection from slavery; and protection from racial discrimination.
    • A great significance of this judicial dictum is that it lays down obligations which transcend consensual relations among states.
    • In addition, there are three other sets of international law obligations.
    • These are primarily derived from the no-harm principles crystallised in the International Law Commission’s 2001 Draft Articles on the Prevention of Transboundary Harm (DAPTH) and the Paris Framework Agreement on Climate Change, 2015.
    • The DAPTH has carefully developed norms of due diligence, stressing all the way that these may be adapted to contextual exigencies.
    • But due diligence obligations certainly extend beyond local and national boundaries, especially because the environmental problems have a transboundary impact.
    • Each state is obliged to observe these standards in the fight against COVID-19 as a matter of international law.

    2. International laws dealing with core human right measures

    • No law or policy to combat epidemics or pandemic can go against the rights of migrant workers, internally displaced peoples, and refugees and asylum seekers.
    • Respect for the inherent dignity of individuals in combating COVID-19 and for the rights of equal health for all, non-discrimination, and the norms of human dignity further reinforce accountability and the transparency of state and other social actors.
    • Panicky and sadist policing, including shoot-a- sight orders in collective exodus situations, and militaristic responses to food riots de-justify health lockouts and curfews.

    3. International humanitarian law

    • The third set of obligations arises out of international humanitarian law. The Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC) is pertinent here.
    • India did not subscribe to any conspiracy or racist theory about the origins of COVID-19 — in fact, India’s foreign minister rightly affirmed the BTWC obligations on March 26 (on the 40th anniversary of that Convention).
    • Surely, this global and non-discriminatory disarmament convention deserves applause because it outlaws a whole range of weapons of mass destruction.
    • India has, and rightly so, called for “high priority” to “full and effective implementation by all states parties”.

    Conclusion

    The starting point of a determined fight against COVID-19 has to be a full-throated repudiation of an ancient Latin maxim, inter arma enim silent leges (in times of war, the law falls silent). Combating this fearsome pandemic calls for re-dedication to nested international law obligations and frameworks.

  • OPCW blames Syria for chemical attacks

    The global chemical weapons watchdog, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) has for the first time explicitly blamed Syria for chemical attacks.

    What did the report say?

    • President Bashar al-Assad’s air force used the nerve gas sarin and chlorine three times in 2017.
    • The findings came in the first report from a new investigative team set up by the OPCW to identify the perpetrators of attacks in Syria’s ongoing nine-year-long civil war.

    About OPCW

    • The OPCW is an intergovernmental organisation and the implementing body for the Chemical Weapons Convention, which entered into force on 29 April 1997.
    • The organisation is not an agency of the United Nations but cooperates both on policy and practical issues.
    • The OPCW, with its 193 member states, has its seat in The Hague, Netherlands, and oversees the global endeavour for the permanent and verifiable elimination of chemical weapons.
    • It promotes and verifies the adherence to the Chemical Weapons Convention, which prohibits the use of chemical weapons and requires their destruction.
    • It won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2013 for its work in Syria and says it has eliminated 97 per cent of the world’s chemical weapons.
    • The OPCW has the power to say whether chemical weapons were used in an attack it has investigated. In June 2018, it granted itself new powers to assign blame for attacks.

    Back2Basics: Syrian Crisis

    • The Syrian civil war is an ongoing multi-sided civil war in Syria fought between the Ba’athist Syrian Arab Republic led by Bashar al-Assad and various domestic and foreign forces opposing both the Syrian government.
    • Even before the conflict began, many Syrians were complaining about high unemployment, corruption and a lack of political freedom under Assad.
    • In March 2011, pro-democracy demonstrations erupted in the southern city of Deraa, inspired by the “Arab Spring” in neighbouring countries.
    • When the government used deadly force to crush the dissent, protests demanding the president’s resignation erupted nationwide. The unrest spread and the crackdown intensified.
    • Opposition supporters took up arms, first to defend themselves and later to rid their areas of security forces. Assad vowed to crush what he called “foreign-backed terrorism”.
    • The violence rapidly escalated and the country descended into civil war.

  • [pib] ‘Bharat Padhe Online’ campaign

    Union HRD Ministry has launched a week-long ‘Bharat Padhe Online’ campaign for Crowdsourcing of Ideas for Improving Online Education ecosystem of India.

    ‘Bharat Padhe Online’ campaign

    • Students and teachers are the main target audience of this campaign.
    • Students who are currently studying in schools or higher educational institutions are the ones engaging with the existing digital platforms offering various courses etc. on a daily basis.
    • They can share what is lacking in the existing online platforms and how it can be made more engaging.
    • The educators across the country can also come forward to contribute with their expertise and experience in the field of education.

  • It’s time for the Red Berets

    Context

    The World Health Organisation (WHO) is not equipped to fight a pandemic of this proportion. The world needs a special UN force to fight COVID-19.

    Limits of WHO in the fight against COVID-19

    • The World Health Organisation (WHO) is not equipped to fight a pandemic of this proportion.
    • Its responsibility is to monitor threats to public health and inform and advise the member states. The fight against COVID-19 has to be on a war footing.
    • The need for the composite force: For this we need a composite force that has the capabilities of massive sanitisation, testing, hospitalisation and providing support systems.
    • Signs of conflict: Even the most powerful nations are not able to cope with the effort and there are signs of conflict on account of shortages of equipment and trained personnel.
    • The only UN body which has the training for assembling fighting forces for emergencies is the Department of Peace Operations.

    Pandemic as a threat to international peace and security

    • Contentions over pandemic: The UN Security Council (UNSC) stands paralysed because of petty battles on the name of the pandemic, its origin and the need for transparency.
    • It should hold an emergency meeting and authorise the UN Secretary-General to put together a force under Chapter VII of the UN Charter.
    • Interpreting the mandate: The mandate of the Charter should be interpreted to emphasise that this is the greatest threat to international peace and security.
    • Possibility of conflict: Moreover, conflicts are possible on account of the fragility of the international system.
    • Member states should be requested to send not only troops but also police, health workers and equipment.
    • Deploying the peace force: In war situations, the Secretary-General is able to put together a force in about four months. This operation requires greater emergency.
    • There is some delicacy about deploying the army internally in different political systems, but UN forces have been acceptable in most countries.
    • Who should bear the cost? As for the cost, the responsibility for the deployment of forces for peacekeeping, peace-building and peace enforcement is that of the permanent members.
    • Instead of competing with each other for leadership of the post-COVID-19 world, let them help create a post-COVID-19 world.
    • Fear of devastation in the poor countries: So far COVID-19 has spread in relatively prosperous regions of the world, which have stable infrastructure and health systems.
    • We cannot trust that it will not spread to less equipped states, in which the devastation will be much more.
    • Only a UN force which can enforce social distancing and lockdowns can prevent a catastrophe.

    Resolution under Chapter VII

    • In which situation it is used: Most Chapter VII resolutions determine the existence of a threat to the peace, a breach of the peace, or an act of aggression in accordance with Article 39, and make a decision explicitly under Chapter VII.
    • A UNSC Resolution is considered to be ‘a Chapter VII resolution’ if it makes an explicit determination that the situation under consideration constitutes a threat to the peace, a breach of the peace, or an act of aggression, and/or explicitly/ implicitly states that the UNSC is acting under Chapter VII in the adoption of some or all operative paragraphs.
    • Chapter VII resolutions are very rarely isolated measures.
    • Often the first response to a crisis is a resolution demanding the crisis be ended. This is later followed by an actual resolution detailing the measures required to secure compliance with the first resolution.
    • Sometimes dozens of resolutions are passed over time to modify and extend the mandate of the first Chapter VII resolution.
    • The UN stands discredited today as the UNSC has not been able to meet.
    • It may take place, now that China has vacated the Security Council chair and Dominican Republic has taken over.
    • Several resolutions are in circulation, but none under Chapter VII.

    Way forward

    • The first step will be to pass a resolution to take action to end the crisis and authorise the Secretary-General to request member states to make personnel available.
    • Meanwhile, another resolution must spell out the modalities of the operation.
    • Red berets: The UN peacekeeping forces are called Blue Berets because of the colour of the caps that they wear. The health force can have caps of another colour, probably red. The launch of the Red Berets will be a historic action to be taken at a critical moment.

    Conclusion

    This is the right time for the UN to act for the collective action against the pandemic which in turn help in establishing the UN’s relevance.

     

  • Needed, greater decentralisation of power

    Context

    Even as States have taken up positions of leadership in the pandemic response, federal limitations are becoming hurdles.

    State governments at the position of leadership

    • In the fight against the pandemic, one of the striking features of governance has been the signal role played by State Chief Ministers across India.
    • Proactive measures: Even before the Union government invoked the Disaster Management Act, 2005, many State governments triggered the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897, and installed a series of measures to combat what was then an oncoming onslaught of COVID-19.
    • These actions have not always been perfect. Some of them have even disproportionately trenched upon basic civil liberties.
    • But, by and large, they have been tailored to the reality faced on the ground by the respective governments.
    • Policies to address local concerns: States such as Maharashtra, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, and Karnataka have shaped their policies to address their direct, local concerns.
    • They have communicated these decisions to the public with clarity and consideration, helping, in the process, to lay out a broad framework for the nation.
    • Not just the laboratories of democracy: In doing so, they have acted not merely as “laboratories of democracy”, to paraphrase the former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, but also as founts of reasoned authority.

    Federal arrangements placing limitations on the states

    • Equally, though, as much as State governments have taken up positions of leadership, they have repeatedly found themselves throttled by the limitations of the extant federal arrangement.
    • The Centre for Policy Research has pointed out at least three specific limitations.
    • Funds and structuring own package: The inability of States to access funds and thereby structure their own welfare packages.
    • Curbs imposed by PFMS: The curbs imposed by a public finance management system (PFMS) that is mired in officialdom.
    • This has prevented States from easily and swiftly making payments for the purchase of health-care apparatus such as ventilators and personal protective equipment.
    • Disruption of supply chains: Three, the colossal disruption of supply chains not only of essential goods and services but also of other systems of production and distribution, which has placed States in a position of grave economic uncertainty.
    • Need to decentralise: As these limitations demonstrate an urgent need to decentralise administration, where States — and local bodies acting through such governments — are allowed greater managerial freedom.
    • Under such a model, the Union government will command less but coordinate more.

    Indian federalism-two distinct levels

    • There are varying accounts of what Indian federalism truly demands.
    • Two levels: What is manifest from a reading of the Constitution is that it creates two distinct levels of government: one at the Centre and the other at each of the States.
    • The Seventh Schedule to the Constitution divides responsibilities between these two layers.
    • The Union government is tasked with matters of national importance, such as foreign affairs, defence, and airways.
    • But the responsibilities vested with the States are no less important. Issues concerning public health and sanitation, agriculture, public order, and police, among other things, have each been assigned to State governments.
    • In these domains, the States’ power is plenary.
    • This federal architecture is fortified by a bicameral Parliament.
    • Significantly, this bicameralism is not achieved through a simple demarcation of two separate houses, but through a creation of two distinct chambers that choose their members differently-
    • A House of the People [Lok Sabha] comprising directly elected representatives and a Council of States [Rajya Sabha] comprising members elected by the legislatures of the States.

    Financial autonomy of the states

    • Ensuring financial autonomy: In formulating this scheme of equal partnership, the framers were also conscious of a need to make States financially autonomous.
    • No overlap: To that end, when they divided the power to tax between the two layers of government they took care to ensure that the authority of the Union and the States did not overlap.
    • Therefore, while the Centre, for example, was accorded the power to tax all income other than agricultural income and to levy indirect taxes in the form of customs and excise duties, the sole power to tax the sale of goods and the entry of goods into a State was vested in the State governments.
    • The underlying rationale was simple: States had to be guaranteed fiscal dominion to enable them to mould their policies according to the needs of their people.

    History of paradox in federal system of India

    • Despite this plainly drawn arrangement, the history of our constitutional practice has been something of a paradox.
    • It is invariably at the level of the States that real development has fructified.
    • But the Union has repeatedly displayed a desire to treat States, as the Supreme Court said in R. Bommai v. Union of India, as mere “appendages of the Centre”.
    • Time and again, efforts have been made to centralise financial and administrative power, to take away from the States their ability to act independently and freely.
    • Following five examples demonstrated that the point made here.

    1 Matters of finance-what was expected in theory did not realise

    • Consider the widely hailed decision to accept the 14th Finance Commission’s recommendation for an increase in the share of the States in total tax revenues from 32% to 42%.
    • While, in theory, this ought to have enabled the States to significantly increase their own spending, in reality, as a paper authored by Amar Nath H.K. and Alka Singh of the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy suggests, this has not happened.
    • What went wrong? Gains made by the States, as the paper underlines, have been entirely offset by a simultaneous decline in share of grants and by a concomitant increase in the States’ own contribution towards expenditures on centrally sponsored schemes.

    2. Goods and Service Tax

    • The decline in the sovereignty of the states: Notably, the creation of a Goods and Services Tax regime, which far from achieving its core purpose of uniformity has rendered nugatory the internal sovereignty vested in the States.
    • By striking at the Constitution’s federal edifice, it has made the very survival of the States dependent on the grace of the Union.
    • The tension today is so palpable that a number of the States are reported to have written to the Union Finance Ministry.
    • More than four months’ worth of Goods and Services Tax compensation to the States — reportedly totalling about a sum of ₹40,000 crore — remains unreleased.

    3. Passing a bill as a money bill

    • The Union government’s centralising instinct, though, has not been restricted to matters of finance.
    • It has also introduced a slew of legislation as money bills, in a bid to bypass the Rajya Sabha’s sanction, even though these laws scarcely fit the constitutional definition.

    4. Role of the Governors

    • Similarly, the role of the Governors has been weaponised to consolidate political power.

    5. Article 370

    • But perhaps most egregious among the moves made is the gutting of Article 370 and the division of Jammu and Kashmir into two Union Territories.
    • It was done without securing consent from the State Legislative Assembly.

    Conclusion

    Perhaps a crisis of the kind that COVID-19 has wrought will show us that India needs greater decentralisation of power; that administration through a single central executive unit is unsuited to its diverse and heterogeneous polity. We cannot continue to regard the intricate niceties of our federal structure as a nettlesome trifle. In seeing it thus, we are reducing the promise of Article 1 of the Constitution, of an India that is a Union of States, to an illusory dream.