HYDERABAD: State governments were made to depend on the Central government in various aspects, said G Haragopal, visiting professor at National Law School of India University of Bangalore (NLSIU), and former professor of the University of Hyderabad.
Delivering a lecture on occasion of the birth anniversary of Acharya Kothapalli Jayashankar, at Centre for Economic and Social Studies (CESS) on “Centre-State relations: Future of federalism” on Thursday, Haragopal said that the Indian diversity demands more decentralisation and autonomy for the States as they are close to the people and answerable to them. “But in practice, the State governments are being made to depend on the Centre for everything. It is enacting laws on State subjects without consulting the State governments,” he lamented.
He recalled the way the new three farm laws (2020), and New Education Policy (2020), which are the subjects of the States and in the concurrent list, were passed in Parliament without consulting the States. “The ‘centralization’ of the New Education Policies (NEP) is a serious threat to the federal system.”
He also took objection to the way the Central government unilaterally abolished/marginalised the institutions like Planning Commission, and UGC. Major loopholes were found in the GST bills, as the significant revenue accrued to the Centre and the State depended on the Union government for the revenue allocations which was crucial for the development of the States, he said.
Haragopal pointed out that during the first decade of Independence the then Prime Minister used to write letters very frequently to the chief ministers of the States about the functioning of the institutions of governance and thereby bringing consensus of all the political parties on the national as well as State issues.
CESS Director Prof E Revathi said there was a need to familiarise the younger generation of the great personality of Dr K Jayshankar and his contribution to the Telangana statehood. Dr Jayshankar participated in the Mulki movement as a student in 1952 and met the then Fazal Ali Commission to give his views opposing the Vishalandhra formation in 1969, Revathi explained.