September 25 will mark the 110th birth anniversary of Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay, one of the founding fathers of the Jan Sangh, the BJP’s predecessor. This year will also feature the 75th foundation day of the Jan Sangh. It’s a moment as good as any to remember that the Jan Sangh and the BJP have always had their own perspectives on federalism.
The Jan Sangh was always a votary of integrationist policies. Upadhyay minced no words while writing, “India has been declared a sovereign State, but adequate arrangements to protect its sovereignty have not been made,” adding the reminder: “The body (of the Nation) is not a collection of different limbs; on the other hand, the limbs are integral parts of the body.”
The ideal has found various expressions over time. While Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s regime carved out three new states and tried to do justice to tribal communities and hill-dwellers, Narendra Modi has rightly been pursuing the cause of ‘Ek Bharat, shrestha Bharat’ passionately.
But high-sounding slogans need to be translated into flesh-and-bone. In the science of organisation, it is important to ensure that every person gets some work to do, and for every work, there is a person to own up. While this sutra is indisputable in public life, not too often does one come across a situation where a right person is selected for a job.
Prime Minister Modi is known for the uncanny knack of assigning appropriate responsibility to befitting persons. Of the many such choices by him, one is Home Minister Amit Shah’s. His considerable contribution to strengthening federalism has three clear dimensions. The first is the revival of inter-state zonal councils. Second, his efforts to resolve inter-state disputes. And third, his efforts to establish enduring peace in the Northeast. All these efforts have helped in making India a better-integrated federation of fraternities.
The Inter-state council (ISC) was provided for in our Constitution under Article 263, as recommended by the Sarkaria Commission. Although not a permanent body, this consultative forum operates through a secretariat under the home ministry. Established in 1990, the council and its zonal limbs were rendered ineffective when home ministers could not find time to meet and interact with Chief Ministers.
The zonal councils (ZCs) that work under the ISC are statutory bodies. They are established by an Act of Parliament—the States Reorganisation Act of 1956. There are six zonal councils—Northern, Central, Eastern, Western and Southern, and a separate Northeastern council set up by another law passed by Parliament in 1971.
The ISC’s efficacy hinges upon the zonal councils. It is educative to take a look at the performance of these zonal councils before and after 2014. Between 2004 and 2014, in all 25 meetings of the ZCs were conducted; since 2014, the number has gone past 70.
Over the years, these meetings have also become more productive. Importantly, ZC meetings serve as a sounding board that helps the Union government to seek an informed feedback on how central schemes are implemented. There have been many remarkable outcomes over the years. On financial inclusion, ZC deliberations led to a decision ensuring a financial point of service, including India Post payment centres, within 5 km of every inhabited village. Feedback gathered helped the central government open over 5,000 post offices with over 13,000 sanctioned jobs across the country.
ZC meetings also shaped key policy decisions such as extending minimum support price to crop varieties like little millet, approving actions for de-silting water bodies, establishing three regional fishery management councils for three southern states and signing of an inter-state road transport agreement between Bihar, Odisha and West Bengal.
Deliberations at ZC meetings also helped the government sanction 775 fast-track special courts in 29 states to deal with sexual crimes, including 398 to deal exclusively with POCSO cases. During 2023-26, these newly established courts heard as many as 3.45 lakh cases. ZCs also took a serious note of the absence of proper town-planning in new townships, leading to the preparation of master-plans for over a thousand new urban centres.
Possibly the most notable outcome of ZC meetings has been the settlement of decades-old inter-state water disputes. During 2018-26, as many as nine consequential river-water-sharing disputes were resolved. They include an agreement between the UP, Madhya Pradesh and Union governments on the Ken-Betwa linking project, between Rajasthan, MP and the Union on the Kalisindh-Chambal link, and between Bihar, Jharkhand and the Union on allocation of Son river water.
Having provided such development impetus during the Modi regime, zonal councils have served as an excellent forum where irritants between the Centre and states, and among the states themselves are resolved through discussions and consultations. Compared to the meetings of the National Development Council and the Governors’ or Chief Ministers’ conferences, ZCs have proved to be more productive. The ZCs’ compact composition, focused agendas and give-and-take approach lead to more result-oriented deliberations.
The ZC has been particularly effective in the Northeastern Zone despite a few regional conflagrations. Between 2004 and 2014, the number of violent incidents recorded in the region stood at 11,327, which came down by a significant 70 percent during 2014-24 to 3,428. There has also been a 70 percent fall in the death of security force personnel and an 85 percent reduction in civilian casualties.
A slew of agreements were signed during this period, including accords with communities that had been restive for years or decades—such as the Bodos and Karbis in Assam, as well as the Bru and Tipra communities in Mizoram and Tripura. Inter-state boundary disputes between Assam and Meghalaya, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh were also deliberated upon. The last decade saw the withdrawal of the much-maligned Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act from Tripura and Meghalaya, and from several districts of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh.
All this, once again, underscores the fact that for federalism to sustain, the states need to remember that although they undoubtedly are self-governing limbs, they together make up a single body.
Vinay Sahasrabuddhe | President, Asiatic Society of Mumbai, and member, National Executive Committee, BJP
(Views are personal)
(vinays57@gmail.com)
