Challenges to Indian federalism

Challenges to Indian federalism

• Legislative front

• Dominant power of Parliament: The Parliament has more legislative powers than the state legislature with union list having more subjects over state list. The Parliament has more power concerning concurrent lists and they also have control over residuary subjects.

• Constitutional Amendment: Only the Parliament has the power to initiate an amendment and the majority of provisions do not require state approval.

• Example: The 97th amendment on cooperatives was passed without state consent.

• Superiority of Lok Sabha over Rajya Sabha: The upper house which shows India’s federal identity has powers subservient to Lok Sabha on many matters.

• Example: Rajya Sabha has only recommendatory power in case of money bills.

• Executive front

• Misuse of power by Governor: Governor acting as an agent of the central government and interfering in the governance of the state affects federalism.

• Example: Tamil Nadu governor reserving the NEET bill for the President, has invited criticism for the delay (200 days after state assembly approval) and the circumstances surrounding it.

• Use of Article 356: The frequent use of provisions to bring President's rule is an attack upon independent state power.

• Example: Imposition of President rule in Arunachal Pradesh in 2016 was quashed by the Supreme court.

• Deployment of central forces: Suo moto deployment of Central forces in the state can lead to centre - state conflict.

• Example: The conflict in Punjab related to the extension of the Border Security Force’s (BSF) jurisdiction from 15 km to 50 km from the international border in Punjab, West Bengal, and Assam.

• Fiscal federalism

• GST council: Centre has veto powers which are being criticized by the states. Also, the delay in payment of GST compensation has threatened fiscal federalism.

• Example: The delay from the Central government in paying the 2.35 lakh crore compensation to states.

• Asymmetric sharing of revenue: Increased usage of cess and  unequal sharing of revenue between centre and state results in conflicts.

• Example: As per PRS legislative research, centre gets 60% of revenue but has only 40% of the public expenditure.

Thus, federalism in India is not very smooth and has many implementational flaws. The central government must reduce efforts of centralization and grant more powers to the state. States must be given more autonomy in the fiscal sphere and in dealing with matters on the concurrent list to make federalism in India more substantive.