SHOULD THERE BE A NEW FEDERAL COMPACT BETWEEN THE CENTRE AND STATES?

In the book, Beyond Covid’s Shadow: Mapping India’s Economic Resurgence, Haseeb A Drabu makes a case and suggests an alternative. Here is an abridged version of a chapter

-  Haseeb A Drabu

The Covid-19 pandemic has exposed the fault lines of federalism in India like never before. The policy responses to the unprecedented crisis have not only lacked in coordination and even worked at cross purposes but have failed to leverage the strengths of the three levels of governance.

Indeed, it reached a point where the management of the pandemic has become a centre versus states issue. There is little doubt that the pandemic has exposed the Union Government’s commitment to a federal constitutional republic to a degree unmatched since its birth. This has become possible because the foundational framework of federalism and its design as laid out in the Constitution of India is not just weak but outdated.

In this essay, it is suggested that the current federal framework, which is colonial in its moorings, unionist in its ideology and patriarchal in its operations needs a complete rethink. Its instrumentalities which have evolved in the context of a closed command economy have to be redesigned to suit the needs and open regulated economy. The scope and remit of federalism has to be widened to include the newer forms of government intervention, which are aligned to the new economic structure.

THE NEW FRAMEWORK

In the new framework, the Centre should exercise leadership instead of control, and economic support instead of dominance. It is this that should form the basis of the new federal compact of the Union with states.