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Subject: Polity

  • [pib] Scheme for Development of Infrastructure Facilities for Judiciary

    The Union Cabinet has approved the continuation of the Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS) for the Development of Infrastructure Facilities for Judiciary. It also approved the decision to support the Gram Nyayalayas by proving recurring and non-recurring grants for a period of 5 years with a total outlay of Rs 50 crores.

    About the Scheme

    • A Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS) for Development of Infrastructure Facilities for Judiciary has been in operation since 1993-94.
    • Adequacy of judicial infrastructure is critical for the reduction of pendency and backlog of cases in Courts.
    • The primary responsibility of infrastructure development for the subordinate judiciary rests with the State Governments.
    • The present proposal provides for additional activities like the construction of lawyer halls, toilets complexes and digital computer rooms.
    • This will add to the convenience of lawyers and litigants besides reducing the digital divide.

    Why such a move?

    • Adequacy of judicial infrastructure is critical for the reduction of pendency and backlog of cases in Courts.
    • Several courts are still functioning in rented premises with insufficient space and some in dilapidated conditions without basic amenities.
    • Well-equipped judicial infrastructure facilitates the administration of justice in a manner that allows easy access and timely delivery of justice to all.

    What is Gram Nyayalayas Scheme?

    • Gram Nyayalayas were established for speedy and easy access to the justice system in the rural areas across the country.
    • The Gram Nyayalayas Act came into force on October 2, 2009.
    • In terms of Section 3(1) of the Act, it is for the State Governments to establish Gram Nyayalayas in consultation with the respective High Courts.
    • The Act authorizes Gram Nyayalaya to hold a mobile court outside its headquarters.
    • Some major reasons behind the non-enforcement include financial constraints, the reluctance of lawyers, police and other government officials.

    Features of the Gram Nyayalayas

    • Gram Nyayalaya is established generally at headquarter of every Panchayat at the intermediate level or a group of contiguous panchayat in a district where there is no panchayat at an intermediate level.
    • The Gram Nyayalayas are presided over by a Nyayadhikari, who will have the same power, enjoy the same salary and benefits of a Judicial Magistrate of First Class.
    • Such Nyayadhikari is to be appointed by the State Government in consultation with the respective High Court.

    Jurisdiction

    • A Gram Nyayalaya have jurisdiction over an area specified by a notification by the State Government in consultation with the respective High Court.
    • The Court can function as a mobile court at any place within the jurisdiction of such Gram Nyayalaya, after giving wide publicity to that regard.
    • The Gram Nyayalayas have both civil and criminal jurisdiction over the offences and nature of suits specified in the First, Second and Third schedule of the Act.
    • The pecuniary jurisdiction of the Nyayalayas are fixed by the respective High Courts.
    • Appeals in criminal matter can be made to the Sessions Court in the respective jurisdiction and in civil matters to the District Court within a period of one month from the date of judgment.

    Trials

    • Gram Nyayalayas can follow special procedures in civil matters, in a manner it deem just and reasonable in the interest of justice.
    • Civil suits are proceeded on a day-to-day basis, with limited adjournments and are to be disposed of within a period of six months from the date of institution of the suit.
    • In execution of a decree, the Court can allow special procedures following rules of natural justice.
    • Gram Nyayalayas allow for conciliation of the dispute and settlement of the same in the first instance.
    • They have been given the power to accept certain evidence which would otherwise not be acceptable under the Indian Evidence Act.

  • The upcoming challenges to Indian federalism

    Context

    In 2026, there will be the challenge of addressing the conflict between the democratic principles and the federal principles, when there will be a reallocation of Lok Sabha seats. India needs to reimagine the current federal compact to address the challenges to federalism.

    Population freeze for Lok Sabha seats

    • Since 1976, seats in the Lok Sabha have reflected the 1971 census and have not taken into account changes in the population.
    • The primary reason for this has been unequal population growth among States.
    • India’s most highly developed and prosperous States have been successful at family planning, while the poorer States continue to expand.
    • The freeze was thus a chance to ensure that India’s most successful States are not punished politically for their success.
    • Therefore, the Indian Constitution may face an unprecedented crisis in 2026 when there will be a dramatic change in the composition of the Lok Sabha.

    Challenge of balancing the principle of democracy and federalism

    • As Article 1 of the Indian Constitution says, India is a Union of States.
    • However, the history of the linguistic reorganisation of States in 1956, and subsequent movements for Statehood afterwards demonstrates that States are distinct associative communities, within the federal structure of the Indian Union.
    • In a democratic set-up, all citizens are equal and are thus entitled to equal representation in governance.
    • But this would imply that bigger States are likely to dominate the national conversation over smaller States.
    • This leads us to an inherent contradiction between the principles of democracy and federalism when federal units are unequal in size, population and economics. 
    • The small States fear that they would get a smaller share of the pie economically, a much reduced say in national issues, and be irrelevant in the political governance of the country.

    How the US Constitution addresses the concerns of small states

    • When the Americans adopted their Constitution, they protected smaller States in four ways.
    • First, national powers over the States were limited.
    • Second, each State regardless of size had two seats in the Senate, giving smaller States an outsized role in national governance.
    • Third, Presidents are elected by electoral votes, which means they must win States rather than the total national population.
    • Fourth, the slave-owning states were allowed to count the slaves for purposes of representation, with each slave being counted as three-fifths of a person.
    • This essential structure remains the bedrock of the American Constitution today.

    How Indian Constitution deals with the issue?

    • India’s quasi-federal structure has always been sui generis.
    • Our founders knew that India’s diversity made federalism inevitable, but, fearing separatist tendencies among States that had never been a single political unit, they also created a strong centre.
    • However, the 1956 reorganisation of States on linguistic lines was a popular recognition of federal principles and yet did not result in separatist tendencies.
    • Since then, new States within the Union have been created in response to the demands of people for greater autonomy.

    Way forward on addressing the challenges to federalism

    • There is an urgent need to reimagine our national compact.
    • Following are the components of such a new balance that need to be fine-tuned to Indian realities.
    • Give more powers to States: The powers of States vis-à-vis the Centre contained in the Lists and in the provisions dealing with altering boundaries of States must be increased to assuage the fear of smaller States that they will be dominated by bigger ones.
    • More localised decision-making is bound to increase national prosperity.
    • Indeed, this was the entire goal of the creation of Panchayat governance through the 73rd and 74th Amendments to the Constitution.
    • Expand the role of Rajya Sabha: The role and composition of the Rajya Sabha, our House of States, must be expanded.
    • This would allow smaller States a kind of brake over national majoritarian politics that adversely impact them.
    • Consent of all states on financial redistribution: Constitutional change and the change in financial redistribution between the States must require the consent of all or nearly all States.
    • Constitutional provisions dealing with language and religion must also be inviolate.
    • Break the bigger States: Serious thought must be given to breaking up the biggest States into smaller units that will not by themselves dominate the national conversation.

    Conclusion

    The unity of India is, of course, the fundamental premise underlying this discussion; but this unity does not depend on an overbearing Centre for its survival.

  • Kongu Nadu region of Tamil Nadu

    A list of new Union Cabinet ministers issued has triggered a debate in political circles in Tamil Nadu, as well as on social media, by referring to ‘Kongu Nadu’, the informal name for a region in the western part of the state.

    Where is Kongu Nadu?

    • ‘Kongu Nadu’ is neither a place with a PIN code nor a name given formally to any region.
    • It is a commonly used name for part of western Tamil Nadu.
    • In Tamil literature, it was referred to as one of the five regions of ancient Tamil Nadu.
    • There were mentions of ‘Kongu Nadu’ in Sangam literature as a separate territory.
    • The name derives from Kongu Vellala Gounder, an OBC community with a significant presence in these districts.
    • The region includes prominent businesses and industrial hubs at Namakkal, Salem, Tirupur and Coimbatore.

    Is there any ground for the allegations about a planned bifurcation?

    • Unlike Telangana or Uttarakhand, there has never been demand or discussions about a separate Kongu Nadu in the modern political history of Tamil Nadu.
    • The debate, therefore, lacks any political or social context.

    Back2Basics: Sangam Age

    • The ‘Sangam’ describes a period from the sixth century BC to the third century AD encompassing today’s Tamil Nadu, Kerala, the southern parts of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, and northern Sri Lanka.
    • The Tamil Sangams or Cankams were assemblies of Tamil scholars and poets that, according to traditional Tamil accounts, occurred in the remote past.
    • It is named for scholarly congregations in and around the city of Madurai, located about 400 km southwest of Chennai.
    • It generally refers to a collection of poems, composed by Tamil poets, both men and women developed in the ancient Southern state of India.
    • It mostly deals with emotional and material topics such as love, war, governance, trade and bereavement.

  • Election of Speaker and Deputy Speaker

    The Maharashtra Legislative Assembly has been without a Speaker for most of this year.

    Election of Speakers

    • The Constitution specifies offices like those of the President, Vice President, Chief Justice of India, and Comptroller and Auditor General of India, as well as Speakers and Deputy Speakers.
    • Article 93 for Lok Sabha and Article 178 for state Assemblies state that these Houses “shall, as soon as may be”, choose two of its members to be Speaker and Deputy Speaker.
    • In Lok Sabha and state legislatures, the President/Governor sets a date for the election of the Speaker.
    • It is the Speaker who decides the date for the election of the Deputy Speaker.
    • The legislators of the respective Houses vote to elect one among themselves to these offices.
    • The Constitution provides that the office of the Speaker should never be empty.
    • So, he/she continues in office until the beginning of the next House, except in the event of death or resignation.

    Ruling party or Opposition?

    • Usually, the Speaker comes from the ruling party.
    • In the case of the Deputy Speaker of Lok Sabha, the position has varied over the years.
    • Until the fourth Lok Sabha, the Congress held both the Speaker and Deputy Speakers positions.
    • In the fifth Lok Sabha, whose term was extended due to the Emergency, an independent member, Shri G G Swell, was elected the Deputy Speaker.
    • The tradition for the post of the Deputy Speaker going to the Opposition party started during the term of Prime Minister Morarji Desai’s government.
    • The first time the Deputy Speaker’s position went to the opposition was during the term of Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao.

    Their roles

    • According to the book Practice and Procedure of Parliament, published by the Lok Sabha Secretariat, the Speaker is “the principal spokesman of the House, he represents its collective voice and is its sole representative to the outside world”.
    • The Speaker presides over the House proceedings and joint sittings of the two Houses of Parliament.
    • It is the Speaker’s decision that determines whether a Bill is a Money Bill and therefore outside of the purview of the other House.
    • The Deputy Speaker is independent of the Speaker, not subordinate to him, as both are elected from among the members of the House.

    Why need Dy Speaker?

    • The Deputy Speaker ensures the continuity of the Speakers office by acting as the Speaker when the office becomes vacant.
    • In addition, when a resolution for removal of the Speaker is up for discussion, the Constitution specifies that the Deputy Speaker presides over the proceedings of the House.

    Issue over time limit for election

    • The Constitution neither sets a time limit nor specifies the process for these elections.
    • It leaves it to the legislatures to decide how to hold these elections.
    • Haryana and Uttar Pradesh specify a time frame for holding the election to the Speaker and Deputy Speaker’s offices.
    • In Haryana, the election of the Speaker has to take place as soon as possible after the election.
    • Uttar Pradesh has a 15-day limit for an election to the Speaker’s post if it falls vacant during the term of the Assembly.

    Answer this PYQ in the comment box:

    Q.Consider the following statements:

    1. The Speakers of the Legislative Assembly shall vacate his/her office if he/she ceases to be a member of the Assembly
    2. Whenever the legislative assembly is dissolved, the speaker shall vacate his/her office immediately.

    Which of the statements given above is/are correct? (CSP 2013)

    (a) 1 only

    (b) 2 only

    (c) Both 1 and 2

    (d) Neither 1 nor 2

  • Mekedatu Dam Project

    Karnataka and Tamil Nadu are again at the crossroads against the Mekedatu dam project in the Cauvery River Basin.

    What is the Mekedatu Project?

    • Mekedatu, meaning goat’s leap, is a deep gorge situated at the confluence of the rivers Cauvery and Arkavathi, about 100 km from Bengaluru, at the Kanakapura taluk in Karnataka’s Ramanagara district.
    • In 2013, then Karnataka announced the construction of a multi-purpose balancing reservoir project.
    • The project aimed to alleviate the drinking water problems of the Bengaluru and Ramanagara districts.
    • It was also expected to generate hydroelectricity to meet the power needs of the state.

    Issues with the project

    • Soon after the project was announced TN has objected over granting of permission or environmental clearance.
    • Explaining the potential for damage to the lower riparian state of TN, it said that the project was in violation of the final award of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal.
    • It stated that the project will affect the natural flow of the river Cauvery considerably and will severely affect the irrigation in TN.

    What do the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal and the Supreme Court say?

    • The Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal, in its final order on February 2007, made allocations to all the riparian States — Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, apart from the Union Territory of Puducherry.
    • It also stipulated “tentative monthly deliveries during a normal year” to be made available by Karnataka to Tamil Nadu.
    • Aggrieved over the final order for different reasons, the States had appealed to the Supreme Court.
    • In February 2018, the court, in its judgment, revised the water allocation and increased the share of Karnataka by 14.75 thousand million cubic feet (tmc ft) at the cost of Tamil Nadu.
    • The enhanced quantum comprised 4.75 tmc ft for meeting drinking water and domestic requirements of Bengaluru and surrounding areas.

    What is Karnataka planning?

    • Encouraged by the Supreme Court verdict, Karnataka, which sees the order as an endorsement of its stand, has set out to pursue the Mekedatu project.
    • Originally proposed as a hydropower project, the revised Mekedatu dam project has more than one purpose to serve.
    • A hydropower plant of nearly 400 MW has also been proposed.
    • The Karnataka government has argued that the proposed reservoir will regulate the flow to Tamil Nadu on a monthly basis, as stipulated by the Tribunal and the Supreme Court.
    • This is why Karnataka has contended that the project will not affect the interests of Tamil Nadu farmers.

  • Delimitation of Jammu and Kashmir

    The Jammu and Kashmir Delimitation Commission has completed its consultation with various and stated that it would base its final report on the 2011 Census to add at least seven more seats to the 83-member Assembly of the erstwhile state.

    Agenda for delimitation

    • Delimitation will be conducted on the basis of the 2011 census report. This assumes significance because the last delimitation exercise was conducted 26 years ago in 1995, and that too was based on the census of 1981.
    • Apart from the demographics indicated in the Census, the commission will also take into account practicality, geographical compatibility, topography, physical features, means of communication and convenience available.
    • Twenty-four seats that are reserved for Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK) would not be delimited in this process. This further makes the delimitation exercise relevant because some political parties argue, that this freeze has created inequity for the Jammu region.
    • The commission will also specify the number of seats to be reserved for the SC and the ST communities in the UT. This is important because despite having a sizeable tribal population, no seats had ever been reserved in the past for the Scheduled Tribes in Jammu and Kashmir.
    • A draft report will be prepared and put in the public domain for consensus and feedback. Only after the fresh comments, the final draft will be prepared.

    What is Delimitation and why is it needed?

    • Delimitation is the act of redrawing boundaries of an Assembly or Lok Sabha seat to represent changes in population over time.
    • This exercise is carried out by a Delimitation Commission, whose orders have the force of law and cannot be questioned before any court.
    • The objective is to redraw boundaries (based on the data of the last Census) in a way so that the population of all seats, as far as practicable, be the same throughout the State.
    • Aside from changing the limits of a constituency, the process may result in a change in the number of seats in a state.

    How often has delimitation been carried out in J&K?

    • Delimitation exercises in J&K in the past have been slightly different from those in the rest of the country because of the region’s special status — which was scrapped by the Centre in August 2019.
    • Until then, the delimitation of Lok Sabha seats in J&K was governed by the Constitution of India, but the delimitation of the state’s Assembly was governed by the J&K Constitution and J&K Representation of the People Act, 1957.
    • Assembly seats in J&K were delimited in 1963, 1973 and 1995.
    • The last exercise was conducted by the Justice (retired) K K Gupta Commission when the state was under President’s Rule and was based on the 1981 census, which formed the basis of the state elections in 1996.
    • There was no census in the state in 1991 and no Delimitation Commission was set up by the state government after the 2001 census as the J&K Assembly passed a law putting a freeze until 2026.

    Why is it in the news again?

    • After the abrogation of J&K’s special status in 2019, the delimitation of Lok Sabha and Assembly seats in the newly-created UT would be as per the provisions of the Indian Constitution.
    • On March 6, 2020, the government set up the Delimitation Commission, headed by retired Supreme Court judge Ranjana Prakash Desai, which was tasked with winding up delimitation in J&K in a year.
    • As per the J&K Reorganization Bill, the number of Assembly seats in J&K would increase from 107 to 114, which is expected to benefit the Jammu region.

  • Collegium system’s role in protecting democracy

    Context

    Judiciary is being challenged, from within and outside. It must shield itself from further erosion of its independence and competence by scrupulously following the law, as declared by the Supreme Court (SC) itself.

    How the Collegium helped to secure the independence of judiciary

    • In 1993, the SC held the following:
    • The process of appointment of Judges to the Supreme Court and the High Courts is an integrated ‘participatory consultative process’.
    • The process aims at selecting the best and most suitable persons available for appointment.
    • The Collegium consists of the CJI and the four senior-most judges of the SC and high courts.
    • It was devised to ensure that the opinion of the Chief Justice of India is not merely his individual opinion, but an opinion formed collectively by a body of men at the apex level in the judiciary.
    • By judicial interpretation, the Supreme Court re-interpreting Article 124 and 214 of the Constitution empowered the judiciary to make appointments to the higher judiciary to secure the rule of law.

    Threat to the judicial independence

    • The framers of the Constitution were alive to the likely erosion of judicial independence.
    • On May 23, 1949, K T Shah stated that the Judiciary, which is the main bulwark of civil liberties, should be completely separate from and independent of the Executive, whether by direct or by indirect influence.
    • In  2016, the Supreme Court struck down a constitutional amendment for creating the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC).
    • The SC strongly disapproved of any role for the political executive in the final selection and appointment of judges.
    • The SC said that “reciprocity and feelings of payback to the political executive” would be disastrous to the independence of the judiciary.

    Consider the question “How the Collegium system helped the Judiciary secure its independence? What are the issues with it?”

    Conclusion

    The selection of deserving judges is essential to ensure the independence of the judiciary. The Collegium must do its best in this task.

    Back2Basics: About the National Judicial Appointments Commission

    • The NJAC or National Judicial Appointments Commission sought to change the system, where judges would have been appointed by a commission where the legislative and the executive would have had a role.
    • The NJAC was supposed to comprise of the Chief Justice of India (Chairperson, ex-officio), two other senior judges of the Supreme Court, The Union Minister of Law and Justice, ex-officio and two eminent persons, to be appointed by the Chief Justice of India, Prime Minister of India, and Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha.
    • The bill was passed by the Lok Sabha on 13 August 2014 and by the Rajya Sabha on 14 August 2014, and became an Act.
    • The NJAC replaced the collegium system for the appointment of judges.
    • The NJAC Bill and the Constitutional Amendment Bill, was ratified by 16 of the state legislatures in India, and the President gave his assent on 31 December 2014.
    • The NJAC Act became effective from April 13, 2015.
    • The NJAC enjoyed support from the Supreme Court Bar Association and many legal luminaries but was also challenged by some lawyer associations and groups before the Supreme Court of India through Writ Petitions.
    • A three-judge bench of the Supreme Court referred the matter to a Constitution Bench that heard different arguments for over a month.
    •  Finally, on October 16, a five-judge bench of the Supreme Court declared the 99th Constitutional Amendment Act and the NJAC Act 2014 “unconstitutional and void”.

  • What is Tele-Law Scheme?

    The Law Ministry recently commemorated an event to mark the coverage of more than nine lakh beneficiaries of the government’s tele-law scheme, using common service centres (CSCs) to provide justice across the country.

    Tele-Law Scheme

    • The concept of Tele-Law is to facilitate the delivery of legal advice through a panel of lawyers stationed at the State Legal Services Authorities (SALSA) and CSC.
    • Tele-Law means the use of communications and information technology for the delivery of legal information and advice.
    • The project initiates to connect citizens with lawyers through video conferencing facilities by the Para-Legal Volunteers stationed at identified 50,000 CSCs.
    • This e-interaction between lawyers and people would be through the video-conferencing infrastructure available at the CSCs.

    Features of the program

    • Under this programme, smart technology of video conferencing, telephone/instant calling facilities available at the vast network of CSC.
    • It enables anyone to seek legal advice without wasting precious time and money.
    • The service is free for those who are eligible for free legal Aid as mentioned under Section 12 of the Legal Services Authority Act, 1987.
    • For all others, a nominal fee is charged.

    Back2Basics: Free legal aid in India

    • Article 21 of the Constitution of India states, “No person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to procedure established by law”.
    • Hence ensuring legal aid to everyone is necessary for ensuring substantive equality.
    • Article 39A of the Constitution of India provides for free legal aid to the poor and weaker sections of the society, to promote justice on the basis of equal opportunity.
    • Articles 14 and 22(1) also make it obligatory for the State to ensure equality before the law and a legal system that promotes justice on a basis of equal opportunity to all.

  • Issues with the UAPA and role of judiciary

    Context

    Father Stan Swamy passed away at a private hospital in Mumbai on July 5. Fr. Swamy was arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).

    How Supreme Court judgment leaves the scope for misuse of UAPA

    • The Supreme Court’s April 2019 decision in National Investigation Agency vs Zahoor Ahmad Shah Watali on the interpretation of the UAPA has affected all downstream decisions involving the statute.
    • This decision has created a new doctrine.
    • According to the decision, in considering bail applications under the UAPA, courts must presume every allegation made in the First Information Report to be correct.
    • Further, bail can now be obtained only if the accused produces material to contradict the prosecution.
    • In other words, the burden rests on the accused to disprove the allegations, which is virtually impossible in most cases.
    • The decision has essentially excluded the admissibility of evidence at the stage of bail.
    • By doing so, it has effectively excluded the Evidence Act itself, which arguably makes the decision unconstitutional.
    • Due to the Supreme Court judgment, High Courts have their hands tied, and must perforce refuse bail, as disproving the case is virtually impossible.
    • The Delhi High Court recently granted bail to three young activists arrested under UAPA in a conspiracy relating to the 2020 riots in Delhi.
    • The Supreme Court reportedly expressed surprise and gave the direction that the decision will “not to be treated as precedent by any court” to give similar reliefs.

    Misuse of the UAPA

    • With such high barriers of proof, it is now impossible for an accused to obtain bail, and is in fact a convenient tool to put a person behind bars indefinitely.
    • This is being abused by the government, police and prosecution liberally: now, all dissenters are routinely implicated under charges of sedition or criminal conspiracy and under the UAPA.
    •  In multiple instances, evidence is untenable, sometimes even arguably planted, and generally weak overall.
    • But as a consequence of UAPA being applied, the accused cannot even get bail.

    Way forward

    • If we want to prevent the misuse, the decision in the Watali case must be urgently reversed or diluted, otherwise, we run the risk of personal liberties being compromised very easily.

    Conclusion

    The provision of the act leaves the scope for misuse and therefore judiciary and legislature need to take steps to provide safeguards to prevent the misuse.

  • Fresh stirrings on federalism as a new politics

    Context

    • Several issues such as vaccine wars, debates over the Goods and Services Tax (GST), the fracas over West Bengal’s Chief Secretary, and the pushback against controversial regulations in Lakshadweep have once again brought into focus the idea of federalism.
    • The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, since taking office, has begun to craft an ideological narrative on State rights, by re-introducing the term Union into the public discourse and pushing back against increased fiscal centralisation

    Lack of political consensus among States for genuine federalism

    • Federalism in India has always had political relevance, but except for the States Reorganisation Act, federalism has rarely been an axis of political mobilisation.
    • Fiscal and administrative centralisation persisted despite nearly two decades of coalition governments.
    • Rather than deepen federalism, the contingencies of electoral politics have created significant impediments to creating a political consensus for genuine federalism.

    Three challenges in deepening federalism among States

    1) Tendency to equate federalism as against nationalism

    • The grammar of development and nationalism, which has mass electoral appeal is used to undermine federalism.
    • Slogans such as ‘one nation, one market’, ‘one nation, one ration card’, ‘one nation, one grid’ symbolise development and nationalism while leaving little space for federalism.
    • In this context, federalism as a principle risks being equated with regionalism and a narrow parochialism that is anti-development and anti-national.

    2) Lack of federal principles

    • Pratap Bhanu Mehta has pointed out that over the decades, federal principles have been bent in all kinds of ways to co-produce a political culture of flexible federalism.
    • Federalism in this rendition is reduced to a game of political upmanship and remains restricted to a partisan tussle.
    • Claimants of greater federalism often maintain silence on unilateral decisions that affect other States.
    • For instance, the downgrading of Jammu and Kashmir into a Union Territory, the notification of the NCT of Delhi (Amendment) Act, 2021 hardly witnessed protests by States that were not directly affected by these.

    3) Economic and governance divergence among states

    • Across all key indicators, southern (and western) States have outperformed much of northern and eastern India.
    • This has resulted in a greater divergence rather than expected convergence with growth.
    • This has created a context where collective action amongst States becomes difficult as poorer regions of India contribute far less to the economy but require greater fiscal resources to overcome their economic fragilities.
    • These emerging tensions were visible when the 15th Finance Commission (FC) was mandated to use the 2011 Census rather than the established practice of using the 1971 Census.
    • This, Southern states feared, risked penalising States that had successfully controlled population growth by reducing their share in the overall resource pool.
    •  With the impending delimitation exercise due in 2026, these tensions will only increase.

    Way forward

    • A politics for deepening federalism will need to overcome a nationalist rhetoric that pits federalism against nationalism and development.
    • Reclaim fiscal federalism:  Weak fiscal management has brought the Union government on the brink of what economist Rathin Roy has called a silent fiscal crisis.
    • The Union’s response has been to squeeze revenue from States by increasing cesses.
    • Its insistence on giving GST compensation to States as loans (after long delays) and increasing State shares in central schemes.
    • Against this backdrop, both sub-nationalist sentiments and the need to reclaim fiscal federalism create a political moment for a principled politics of federalism.
    • Sharing burden with poorer States: On the fiscal side, richer States must find a way of sharing the burden with the poorer States.
    • An inter-State platform that brings States together in a routine dialogue on matters of fiscal federalism could be the starting point for building trust and a common agenda.
    • Overcome isolationist tendency: The politics of regional identity is isolationist by its very nature.
    • An effort at collective political action for federalism based on identity concerns will have to overcome this risk.
    • Finally, beyond principles, a renewed politics of federalism is also an electoral necessity.

    Consider the question “Federalism in India has always had political relevance, but it has rarely been an axis of political mobilisation. What are the factors responsible for this? Suggest the way forward for the states to overcome these factors.” 

    Conclusion

    A renewed politics of federalism would require immense patience and maturity from regional parties. It remains to be seen whether they up to the task.