Federalism: Constitutional provisions; changing nature of centre state relations; integrationist tendencies and regional aspirations; inter-state disputes.

Intro: Federalism is derived from the Latin word foedus, which means treaty or agreement. Federalism therefore, is a political system that is formed through a treaty or agreement between a central authority and its various constituent units.

how scholars have described Indian federation.


WH Morris Jones called Indian federalism as “bargaining federalism”	Ivor Jennings has described it as “ Federation with strong centralising tendency.”	Greenville Austin said “ India's federation is cooperative federalism. Though the Constitution of India has created a strong central government, it has not made the state governments weak and has not reduced them to the level of executive agencies of the central government. He described the Indian Federation as “a new kind of federation to meet India’s peculiar needs.”


India a quasi federal- Kenneth Clinton Wheare. Has ethnocentric attitude as he views USA as pure federalism	Charles Henry Alexandrowicz said India's federalism is Sui generis	Alfred Stepan calls India's model better than USA. Calls it demos enabling model. Says federalism is suitable to all multi-ethnic democracies like India as it reconciles the two essential principles of autonomy and integration.

Contemporary example of federalism:

Kerala assembly has passed resolution against Electricity (amendment) bill,2020 and TN assembly passed resolution against the farm laws
GNCTD bill-

Delhi formed through article 239AA, 69th Amendment 1991. It says land ,public order and police to be controlled by Centre. Rest LG has to act on the aid and advice of the COM
SC judgement coined the term “collaborative federalism” particularly encase of Delhi (Govt of NCT Delhi vs UOI, 2018)
New amendment-

The word “Govt” related to any policy decision or law means LG
All policy decisions must go through the LG
Rules of Delhi assembly must be consistent with that of lok sabha
The Bill prohibits the Legislative Assembly from making any rule to enable itself or its Committees to: (i) consider the matters of day-to-day administration of the NCT of Delhi and (ii) conduct any inquiry in relation to administrative decisions.
The Act requires the LG to reserve certain Bills passed by the Legislative Assembly for the consideration of the President.

This confrontation is enhanced when the centre and states are ruled by different parties.
the non-BJP states have also expressed concern regarding the Union government’s intervention in state administration by directly monitoring and political appropriating the Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSS).

Criticism-

Suhas Palshikar- The Indian case for federalism is strong, but the Indian practice of federalism is weak.
Soli Sorabjee in his book - “The governor: sage or saboteur” has held that the arbitrary exercise of the discretionary power has converted the institution of coop federalism to the institution of bargaining federalism
Yamini Aiyyar, CPR, says because of the increasing presidentialisation of national politics and a single party dominance at centre, the stature of CMs has been diminished significantly.
It is said that in India there is no centre and state dispute but party to party dispute . This is enhanced when the centre and states are ruled by two different parties
Balveer Arora- Says idea of competitive federalism can never be fair due to regional disparity.

Fiscal federalism:

- Vijay Kelkar , former finance secretary

Fiscal federealism is oxygen to the federal model
Fiscal federalism is the economic counterpart to political federalism.
It is unfortunate that discourse of coop fed ends at state level and we ignore the third tier
Advocates share in GST to the local govts also

NK Singh in his book “portraits of power” has suggested that a coordination mechanism between the Finance commission and the GST council has become an “inescapable necessity” as both the bodies deal with fiscal federalism.

COVID-19 and federalism-

India’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic has shifted the balance of its federal structure. The pandemic has enabled the central government to implement far-reaching reforms in areas such as agriculture and labour traditionally considered to be the domain of states
The central government implemented a national lockdown using its powers under a central disaster management law, and its Ministry of Home Affairs issued extensive guidelines to states for controlling the pandemic. This law empowers the central government to commandeer state and local authorities if necessary. State governments acquiesced even though they have independent powers under a more specific law, the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897.
Louise Tillin, a known scholar on federalism captures this trend succinctly when she says: “India has moved from unilateral centralized decision-making in the first wave to unilateral decentralized decision-making—by default—in the second wave”.
federal relations in India are a function of political forces more than structural constraints. State powers seem to increase relative to the centre in the absence of single-party dominance, and wane as single-party dominance increases.
the pandemic may have consolidated a new phase of federal relations, where states increasingly accept the reform priorities of the centre in a manner not seen in a generation- milan vaishnav
The trend where the regional actors are largely rallying behind the nationalist policy decisions of the central government marks the beginning of ‘national federalism’[ll] in India.

Re-organisation of states:

Sociological perspective- Y. Yadav , R C Guha- marginalized sections want to fill the development deficit and want greater representation.
Political economy- Atul Kohli- CG/Jharkhand said these states would have to open their economy for mineral extraction
Good governance - l k Advani, Mayawati
Political basis - Lousie Tillin
, C. Jaffrelot

On smaller states;
Favour- Advani, Mayawati, Bibek Debroy says USA with 1/4th population has 50 states.
Against- M P Singh

, Sudha Pai

Say it would lead to unnecessary expenditure and would open a Pandora's box

More states would mean more interstate water disputes, more ministries, unnecessary expenditure. Demand for smaller states is not going to end. May lead to balkanization of India.

Recommendations -

NCRWC-

Interstate Council must specify the matters that fall under it
A statutory body called interstate trade and commerce commission should be established
The President should appoint the governor of a state only after consultation with the chief Minister
To question whether minister in a state has lost the confidence of the assembly should only be tested on the floor of the house
When the state bill is reserved for consideration of the President there should be a time limit within which President should take a decision whether to give his assent or return the bill

Sarkaria commission- over centralisation leads to blood pressure at centre and anaemia at periphery.
2nd arc has suggested subsidiarity principle

Centre state disputes

Legislative sphere

Under 7th schedule distribution of power is tilted towards the centre. 42ndAA further shifted 5 subjects like education,environment,etc from state to concurrent list
Recently Punjab govt passed law to nullify farm bills passed by centre saying agriculture comes under state list
Article 249,252 and 253 Allowed the Centre to frame laws on subjects under the state list

administrative sphere

Article 365 and 356
Control over all India services through appointments and removal
Chairman and members of State Public service commission,SHRC though appointed by the governor of a state can be removed only by the President

Inter state water disputes

Whiskey is to drink, water is to fight- Mark Twain
Art262 parliament has removed water disputes from jurisdiction of SC
15th FC- https://www.drishtiias.com/daily-updates/daily-news-analysis/15th-finance-commission-recommendations-resource-allocation