Opposition-ruled states have revived an old grouse on the eve of the Lok Sabha polls: discrimination against the states by the Centre. The mainline media has been underplaying the issues; but crushed regional aspirations can become a strong anti-BJP plank just when the Ram Mandir juggernaut is threatening to level everything in its way.
A few days ago, the DMK-led Tamil Nadu assembly passed two resolutions against what it sees as the Union government’s moves to water down the federal character of the Indian state. One resolution came down heavily on ‘One Nation, One Election’ prescription which wants state assembly and national elections be coordinated at the same time to save time and reduce costs.
The resolution says local bodies, state assemblies and Parliament hold their elections at different times based on their own regional cycle. To meddle will this flies in the face of the decentralization envisaged in the Constitution of India.
The second resolution calls upon the Centre to desist from starting a delimitation process in 2026 wherein a fresh ratio of Lok Sabha and assembly seats would be drawn up based on an updated population census. This resolution voices the fear of the southern states that the Centre is hell bent on reducing its representation compared to the Northern provinces.
Many of the South states have made rapid progress, partly by keeping their population growth flat. Instead of being rewarded for the progressive transformation, the Centre is seeking to penalize these states for controlling their population!
CMs hit the street
Simultaneously, sharing of tax revenue is generating considerable heat. Soon after the interim budget on 1 February, Congress MP from Bangalore Rural, D.K. Suresh, attacked the Modi government stating, “Injustice is being served to south India. Funds that were supposed to reach the south are getting diverted and distributed to north India.” There might be no other choice left but to demand a “separate country,” he said in a fit of pique.
The Congressman has rightly drawn flak as he is treading ominously close to the pre-1960 demands for a sovereign Dravida Nadu. But that has not stopped distribution of tax revenue becoming a huge bone of contention. Several states have taken to splashing full, front page advertisements in newspapers and staging satyagraha at New Delhi’s popular protest site, the Jantar Mantar.
Ministers and lawmakers from India’s southern states protested in the capital New Delhi last Wednesday against what they said was discrimination in the distribution of federal funds by the Centre. In the first round, on Wednesday 7 February, it was Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah who led the protests along with his cabinet ministers and MLAs.
The protestors said that despite the capital Bangalore contributing the second highest taxes in the country, in the last 4 years Karnataka has seen its share of the tax funds transferred back from the Union government fall to 3.64% of total national taxes collected, down from 4.71% earlier. Siddaramaiah claimed the unfair division of tax and faulty implementation of GST had resulted in Karnataka losing out Rs 1.87 lakh crore over the last few years.
The next day, Thursday 8 February, the protests at Jantar Mantar were led by Pinarayi Vijayan, CPM’s Kerala chief minister, Delhi CM Arvind Khejriwal, and Punjab’s Bhagwat Mann – all non-Congress opposition CMs. The Kerala CM claimed that there had been a fall of Rs 57,400 crore in state’s receipts from the Centre, a shortfall of Rs 12,000 crore in GST compensation, and a fall in Kerala’s eligible borrowing limit to Rs 28,830 crore from the Rs 39,626 crore.
Akhand Bharat?
It is significant that opposition state governmentshave had to stage street protests to demand funds that should have devolved to them in the natural course. It is also a sad reflection on how federalism seems to be working.Prime Minister Modi in parliament decried the “divisive politics over government funds” and said the Opposition should stop searching for “narratives to break the nation”. Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman claimed the Centre has no elbow room in allocation of funds to the states, and has to follow the recommendations of the 15thFinance Commission.
However, the delay in repatriation of GST dues, and the repeated charges of favouritism in allocation of funds for BJP-ruled states have added grist to the mill that the discrimination is now an institutionalized reality.
Beyond revenue distribution, the bigger issue is now of regional diversity. India’s multi-faceted ‘regional character’ is a matter of pride and many see it as part of the country’s rich cultural heritage. However, for some in the Sangh Parivar, the ideological mentor of the BJP, a unified India or ‘Akhand Bharat’ without the pull and push of regional aspirations is the bedrock of a strong and undivided country.
Hindu Mahasabha leader Vinayak Savarkar, in the organization’s 19th Annual Session in 1937 defined Akhand Bharat as the notion that “must remain one and indivisible…from Kashmir to Rameswaram, from Sindh to Assam.”
Constitutionally, we still are a federal polity; but the political wheels are fast spinning towards a unitary form of government where regional aspirations will be progressively choked. That some of the states have sounded an alarm is indeed welcome, as hopefully it will be put the matter on the agenda in the coming Lok Saha polls.