Tied to the umbilical cord : Redefining federalism
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: November 05 2011 -

Any discussion on federalism has to centre around the structure on which the relationship between the States and the Centre revolves and while CPI (M) general secretary Prakash Karat may appear to have stuck to a radical stand in dubbing this relationship, in the context of India, undemocratic, his observation nonetheless is food for thought.

Federal in structure but unitary in spirit is how the Constitution of India has laid down and it is on this Constitutional strength that subjects have been drawn up to be included in the State list, Union list and the Concurrent list.

This is the text book definition of one of the prominent characteristics of Indian Parliamentary democracy and while the demarcating line between what should come under the ambit of the State legislatures and what should be the purview of Parliament can be appreciated in the face of the pluralistic composition of the country, it is observations like the ones made by Mr Karat, that brings into focus the meaning that the 'unitary in spirit' takes when put into practise.

To the people of Manipur, the argument put forth by the CPI (M) leader may strike a bell, given the fact that "tied to the umbilical cord," "high command", "Delhi durbar" are all phrases that have become synonymous with political parties which have a telling presence at Delhi, such as the Congress (I) and the BJP.

In fact so pervasive has this culture become that today it is no longer a case of the Left parties catching a cold when Moscow sneezes but the State units of these political parties taking out their umbrella when it rains in Delhi.

Different interpretations may be given to this Delhi centric culture, but what is obviously and painfully clear is the point that no political party in Manipur has been able to chart out their own course of action with wisdom sans Delhi.

This does not necessarily mean that the Delhi centric approach is unhealthy for the State but no one can say such a trend is healthy either.

However what is clear, at least in Manipur, is that the immediate fall out of such a political culture is the all enveloping belief that Manipur can only and will only prosper when the State Government is run by the party which is in power at Delhi. This is redefining the phrase "unitary in spirit" with a local touch, Imphal style.

It is this politicisation of the definition of Indian Parliamentary democracy that Mr Karat must obviously be referring to when he dubbed the Centre-States relationship as undemocratic.

Acknowledging this may help in understanding why the present Congress led SPF Government takes extra pride in basking in the shadow of the UPA Government, more so that election to the 10th Assembly is scheduled sometime early next year.

Viewed on a larger canvass, this may also explain why home grown political parties, notably the MPP, have not deemed it fit to seriously look into their inner self, as such a political culture provides them the right alibi to put up a front before the people and cover up their failures.

In the bargain, Manipur continues to remain politically inconspicuous and it may not be overstating things if one were to say that such a climate offers the right platform for political minnows and pretenders to flourish, as failure and success may equally be attributed to Delhi.

Perhaps the need for a more meaningful federal structure was politically voiced for the first time in Manipur when the Federal Party of Manipur was formed in the earlier part of the 90s, the idea of which was given birth to by some senior faculty members from Manipur University.

That the FPM failed to sustain itself as a political entity is a different matter, but it is worth noting that a political leader like Mr Karat should echo a thought which had been aired nearly twenty years earlier by a political party born and bred in Manipur.

A case of the people committing political harikiri or a case of the leaders who gave birth to this party being swept away at the stake of power game ?

Whatever the case, politics may be about knowing who to sup with, notably how to identify with which political party to align with in Delhi, but there is also something called values and political ideology. Or are these aspects anathema to the idea of politics ?

Ultimately it is not a change in the phrase "Federal in structure but unitary in nature," that is needed, but a thorough uphauling of the mindset of the local political leaders.