Centre-State Relations

Abstract

The fact that the notorious 42nd Amendment Act reduced the States to the position of a subordinate dependent of the Government of India, showed that the attack on their powers was an inevitable requirement of dictatorial rule. The Centre-State relations have become an issue in the struggle between the forces of dictatorship and democracy.

However, all those who support a change in Centre-State relations do not necessarily represent the democratic urge behind it. This important issue of Indian democracy is often reduced to the narrow proportion of provincial and regional claims and attempts are made to rouse chauvinistic feelings. This has nothing in common with the democratic demand for State autonomy, expansion of democratic rights, and end to concentration of power at the Centre. It only demands more facilities at the expense of other States and peoples and rouses chauvinism and is disruptive of democratic and national unity.

The existing Centre-State relations are not based on greater democratic or economic freedoms to any State, but on the suppression of freedom for all States. The central point in the struggle is the subordination of all States to the Centre and not favour shown to this or that state.