GS Paper 2
Syllabus: Parliament-Structure, functioning and conduct of business, federalism etc
Context:
- The leaders of the Indian national movement responded to demands of social reforms to the extent that it was essential for, and within the limits of, preserving unity.
- In the words of K. Gandhi, “protection of neglected classes should not be carried to an extent which will harm them and harm the country.”
- India is being mobilized for an era of national resurgence.
- The Prime Minister calls it the Amrit Kaal, the 25-year lead-up to 100 years of Independence.
- National unity is paramount; duty comes before rights, according to him.
Present crisis:
- Climate change to terrorism
- Shaky economic models to pandemics.
- Strong national governments are expected to be driving this era — not multinational bodies, or provincial authorities, or village councils.
- Technology incentivises, enables and legitimizes centralisation.
- The elimination of intermediaries from political and economic negotiations
Tensions: emerging and existing:
- Caste tensions.
- Two religious minorities — the Muslims and Sikhs — are powerless, restive and fearful.
- The agitations against the farm laws and the Citizenship (Amendment) Act.
- Disequilibrium in the relationship between the Hindi heartland and regions in the south, the Northeast and Kashmir.
- Harder border policies
- The promotion of Hindi
- Centralisation of policing, fiscal governance, and policymaking in a range of subjects
- The GST regime issues
- The Hindi heartland’s relationship with West Bengal, Maharashtra and Gujarat, where regionalism still has mass appeal.
Social justice and secularism, Issues of Muslims:
- Monopolized by the upper caste: The upper castes among the Muslims had monopolized the power that they bargained on behalf of the community, at the cost of women and the depressed classes among them.
- Sachar Committee: The community as a whole materially lagged behind the rest as per the Sachar Committee.
- Representatives in Lok Sabha: In the current Lok Sabha, there are 27 Muslim members; a proportionate representation would be 80.
Language of trouble:
- Push for the Hindi language: The push for replacing English with Hindi as the link language of the country, while simultaneously promoting regional languages.
- This creates friction between the heartland and non-Hindi regions and also unsettles the middle class that sees English as emancipatory.
- Hindi is expanding and its dominance is inevitable.
- Migration of Hindi speaking: Hindi-speaking regions have higher fertility than the rest.
- People from these regions will migrate to non-Hindi regions, the centres of economic growth in the west and the south, where native populations are ageing and fertility is declining.
- Policy-driven population management: Apart from the demographic patterns driven by natural and economic factors, India is also on the cusp of policy-driven population management.
- Population management — controlling birth, migration, classification etc. — all have been integral parts of modern state building.
Definition of Federalism: Federalism is a mixed or compound mode of government that combines a general government with regional governments in a single political system, dividing the powers between the two.
Federalism as a multidimensional framework:
- Framework for cooperation, common goals and collective action: Federalism has to be understood and used as a framework for cooperation, common goals and collective action.
- It is not a battle cry for a Center-State confrontation.
- Federalism is not incitement, but the solution to the problem of instability and disequilibrium.
- It is the tool of the nation-builder, not the slogan of the separatist.
- Dynamic and multidimensional concept: Federalism has to be understood as a dynamic and multidimensional concept, in contrast with a linear notion of vertical power-sharing between a Center and provinces.
- Only then will minorities within minorities and communities that actually lost out in the earlier power distribution get justice.
- To apply federalism in a multidimensional manner will require a whole new set of legal and institutional arrangements like:
- Resolving the questions related to the sub-categorisation of quotas
- Supreme Court benches in regions.
- It cannot be the instrument for provincial elites: Federalism cannot be the instrument for provincial elites to capture all power and monopolize all representation as has been the evident trend in the recent past.
- That trend delegitimizes the entire premise of federalism.
- Similarly, Muslim cultural autonomy cannot be a facade to perpetuate gender injustice.
- Telugu nationalists had feared the dominance of Tamil at one point.
Conclusion:
Amrit Kaal needs a new discussion on equitable power-sharing and resource-sharing across regions, castes, linguistic groups and genders. That will be essential for India’s progress, anchored in a new federalism compact.
Insta Links:
Practice Questions:
Q. Parliament’s power to amend the constitution is a limited power and it cannot be enlarged into absolute power”. In the light of this statement explain whether parliament under article 368 of the constitution can destroy the Basic structure of the constitution by expanding its amending power? (UPSC 2019)
