\u201cThough the Constitution provides adequate\npowers to the Centre to fulfil its role, yet in actual practice, the Centre can\nmaintain its dynamism and initiative not through a show of its powers\u2014which\nshould be exercised only as a last resort in a demonstrable necessity\u2014but on\nthe cooperation of the States secured through the process of discussion,\npersuasion and compromises. All governments have to appreciate the essential\npoint that they are not independent but interdependent, that they should act\nnot at cross-purposes but in union for the maximisation of the common good.\u201d\nThese words by jurist M.P. Jain in 1968 give us a slight idea of what\nCooperative Federalism is and what it is meant to be. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cooperative Federalism envisages that the\nNational and State agencies undertake government functions jointly rather than\nexclusively. The Centre and the States would share power without power being\nconcentrated at any government level or in any agency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The term \u201cCooperative Federalism\u201d entered into\nthe lexicon of comparative federal theory and practice when classical\nfederations\u2014the USA, Canada and Australia, especially the latter two\u2014departed\nfrom the spirit of dual sovereignty within their constitutions to deal with the\neconomic dislocations and devastations of the Great Economic Depression of\n1929-30s and the Second World War (1939-1945) and to institute policies and\ncomprehensive welfare states.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The renewed emphasis on it in India is in three\ncontexts:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
1. Adverse\neconomic and social consequences of neo-liberal economic reforms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2. Extreme\nregionalisation of the highly fragmented party system since the 1989 general\nelection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
3. The\nModi-led NDA Government being the first one-party majority-cum-coalition\ndispensation in three decades since the\nmajority secured by the Rajiv Gandhi-led Congress in 1984.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The advantage of this system is that distribution\nof responsibilities gives people and groups access to many avenues of influence\nwhich may otherwise be inaccessible. Even in a truly Federal State, there may\nbe several objectives to be achieved that may have political importance or\nramifications throughout the country. It would be practically impossible for\nthe Federal government to achieve the national objectives without active\ncooperation from the State governments. It is thus crucial that the Federal and\nState governments are on the same page and the same wavelength.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In recent times, after the NDA Government led by\nMr. Narendra Modi came into power, the Centre-State relationship was\nstrengthened by the government\u2019s decision to abolish the Planning Commission\nand create a new federal balance of power. The sixty-five-year-old Planning\nCommission of India has been replaced by a \u2018think tank\u2019 called the National\nInstitution for Transforming India<\/strong>, popularly described as the NITI Aayog.\nThe major aim of NITI Aayog is to achieve Sustainable Development Goals and to\nenhance Cooperative Federalism by fostering the involvement of State\nGovernments in the economic policy-making process using a bottom-up approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Fourteenth Finance Commission of India\nrecommended a 10% increase in the share of States in the Centre\u2019s tax revenue\nfrom the earlier 32% to 42%. This move was to ensure that the States do not\ndepend too much on Central assistance to plan their respective development\nneeds. It was hailed as a strong move towards Cooperative Federalism\u2014where the\nStates and Centre cooperate with each other in the developmental process with\nmore autonomy devolving to the States in the process of planning their\ndevelopmental projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The introduction of Goods and Services Tax (GST)\nfrom July 1, 2017 is a major step towards making India a \u201cOne Nation One\nMarket\u201d tax regime. The GST is one indirect tax for the whole nation, which\nwill make India a unified market. It has amalgamated several Central and State\ntaxes into a single tax, eradicating the double taxation system. It is the\nperfect model of cooperative federalism. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Of all these successful Center-State\ncollaborations there are some contemporary issues which compel us to think \u2018Is\nCooperative Federalism a reality? Or is it a myth?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n The first point I would like to enunciate is the\nindependence of the States from the Centre. According to the new \u2018fiscal\nfederalism\u2019 and \u2018cooperative federation\u2019, the State Governments are freed from\nthe excessive controls of the Central Government. Allowing State Governments to\nchart their own paths is both fair and likely to result in more efficient\noutcomes. However, many States are at various stages of development: a\nreduction in Central development spending could arguably lead to widening gaps\nin the standards of living across the States. Ensuring horizontal equity across\nStates is a critical aspect of Cooperative Federalism, as well as perhaps the\nbest argument for persisting with Central Government programmes relating to\ncore aspects of social welfare. State finances also vary considerably and some\nof the weaker States had protested that the Union Budget 2015-16 diluted the\nproposals of the Fourteenth Finance Commission to their detriment. Even as\nStates received a more significant share of tax revenues, the taxes themselves\nwere reduced, sometimes replaced by surcharges and cesses to be collected by\nthe Central Government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The next issue, violating the principles of\nfederalism, which I want to mention, is the decentralisation of power while\ndealing with the issue of terrorism. The establishment of National\nInvestigation Agency (NIA) in 2008 as an immediate response to the terror\nattacks in Mumbai is one such example. It does not require a State\u2019s consent to\ninitiate an investigation into crimes listed in the Schedule of the NIA Act.\nThe functioning of the NIA has been subject to an extensive debate about the\nviolation of a State\u2019s autonomy. In addition, issues of coordination and\nintelligence sharing have also been raised concerning the functioning of the\nNIA vis-\u00e0-vis the State Police. Thus, even though the Bombay High Court had\nupheld the constitutional validity of the NIA in 2014, federal tensions\ncontinue to exist. <\/p>\n\n\n\n India is the second largest populated country in\nthe world with a population of over 1.2 billion. Securing employment for its\ncitizens is one of the most important issues that the government faces. Touted\nas the largest employment generation programme in human history, the Mahatma\nGandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) was launched in\n2006 in 200 districts of the country. It is a centrally sponsored scheme which\nis ultimately implemented by State Governments. In theory, the implementation\nof the MGNREGS serves as a compelling example of how cooperative federalism can\ntake shape in practice as it involves institutions at the Central, State as\nwell as local government levels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, like other schemes financed by the\nCentre but implemented by the States, the performance of the MGNREGS is\ncharacterised by sub-national variations. Many of these problems arise from the\nfact that the implementation of the Act was not accompanied by simultaneous\nrecruitment of trained personnel at the local level. The paucity of workforce\nhas led to two major issues\u2014underutilisation of labour budgets and lack of\nuniformity in the conduct of social audits. The performance of Gram Panchayats\nacross States has also varied. While Kerala and Madhya Pradesh have had active\ninvolvement of the Panchayats, in Jharkhand, for a few years, decisions on\nallocation of work were being made by the Governor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n From the above arguments, it is clear that on\nthe one hand the Centre and States are working smoothly with each other with a\nminimal dispute at all making an initiative like GST a success, while on the\nother, there are disputes at different levels on issues like inequality among\nStates, tackling issues of terrorism, employment generation schemes, etc. \n\nCommunications, inter-state commerce, e-commerce, taxation, security and\na host of such national objectives get derailed when a State\u2019s interest\npredominates. For a federation where the units are incentivised to cooperate\nwith each other, individualised solutions must be put forward in situations of\nconflict, keeping the broad normative framework of cooperative federalism in\nmind. In chaotic conditions, the Centre and the States must devise a delivery\nsystem for implementation of federal programmes by motivating compliance from\nthose concerned in the States. It is no time for the Titans to clash, but to\ncooperate in the national interest.\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cThough the Constitution provides adequate powers to the Centre to fulfil its role, yet in actual practice, the Centre can maintain its dynamism and initiative not through a show of its powers\u2014which should be exercised only as a last resort in a demonstrable necessity\u2014but on the cooperation of the States secured through the process of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=344"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":345,"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344\/revisions\/345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}