CHANGING CONCEPT OF FEDERALISM

Merriam Webster dictionary defines “federal” as “of or constituting a form of government in which power is distributed between a central authority and a number of constituent territorial units however there being nothing static about the federal concept, no country can be be said to have ‘pure’ federalism in the sense of there a complete equality of status, between the Centre and the States. In fact in Canada and USA federations, the focus is on “cooperation” between the Centre and the states rather than on independence of states. It is extremely difficult to hold that federalism must accord with standard or fixed line. Thus a federation can move towards either way, left or right, depending upon the degree of power conferred on the Central (federal) government and as such need not to accord with any standard, immutable, fixed mould. With passing of thought of laissez faire into desuetude and the consequent concept of ‘welfare state’, some constitutional adjustments have to be made to adopt and meet the challenges of new order. Though, courts provided way to adjustment by emphasizing the role of central powers, it has not been sufficient in itself. Therefore, the concept of cooperative federalism has been the effective way out. Hence, in any case Centre and state have to work in coordination for the mutual co-existence and development. The governments at both the levels have to come together and develop some formula to workout some workable solutions in their internal disputes by a process of dialogue, discussion, agreements and compromise. The framers of the Constitution of India realized that there is no viability of top down command in a federation or a hierarchical arrangement of command from Centre to states. It rather needs to be a horizontally arranged system based on mutual discussion and dialogue entailing symbiotic association.

Therefore, the framers of the constitution of India drawing upon the experience of the working of older federations, incorporated into the constitution, structural provisions to promote the coordination and cooperation, and minimize friction, among various governments levels.A number of feature and provisions of the constitution have been consciously framed to institutionalize the concept of Centre – states cooperation.

The following are the Constitutional provisions designed to promote inter-governmental cooperation between Centre and States:

1. Article 252 enabling the Centre to legislate on the state subject on the request of two or more states.

2. Article 270 scheme of financial relations between the central and the states.

3. Article 275 enabling the Centre to provide the grant in aid to needy state which is in financial needs.

4. Article 263 establishing the Inter-state council.

5. Article 262 River water disputes.

6. Article 312  All India services.

The framers of the constitution of India applied the experience gained by the older federations in working their federal operations and relations. Thus, what the older federation learnt through experience over the period of time, India sought to achieve the same by drawing upon the experience of these older federations. Thus, framers of Indian constitution instead of inventing the wheel again  sought to use the wheel, already invented, innovated and adapted to in the changed modern socio-political and economic scenario by these older federations, by way of choosing to incorporate certain cooperative mechanism in the constitution itself in order to secure the same benefit and results to Indian federation which the older federations achieved over a long period of legal and legislative tribulations.

The Constitution or its provisions are not an end in itself they are means to an end. They seek to achieve a purposewhich is the welfare of the peoplewho subject themselves to the authority of the Constitution as the supreme law of the land. Federalism is essentially a means to ensurepeace, security and socio-economically conducive environment while it also means to preserve the cultural, religious and ethnic diversity of the constituent units. Be it the Centre or the State, each has to be a willing partner both in shouldering the responsibility and sharing the resources for the maximum good of the people.This, however, has been ironical that States want more and more powers & autonomy from Centre while on the other hand they have not been ready to share power or autonomy with local Panchayat Raj institutions and urban local Bodies or municipalities.

Hence in order to be a success, Cooperative federation would require the Centre and the State to be willing partners in the spirit of coordination and accommodation, as it takes two to tango. If any state fails in its obligations to perform its mandatory duties of administration and/or rather trammels the socio-economic development, it would behoove, rather incumbent upon, the Centre to invoke and make use of the relevant provisions in the constitution to tide over such exigencies in larger public interest. In such cases, it would be useless and irrelevant to say the federation has been undermined.

However, it is apparent that the Constitution can only provide framework & means to ensure that the federating units would not be able either to cause failure of the constitutional machinery or to travel beyond their allocated powers & jurisdiction; but it cannot directly compel or enforce federating units to function in the spirit of cooperation in spite of providing all the necessary mechanism for it. Proverbially one can lead a horse to water but cannot make it drink.