Present Status of Federalism under our Constitution

By Barada Das

Cuttack/Odisha, Jan 11 : The 144th  meeting of the Thinkers’ Club over the zoom Platform was held to discuss on the above topic. This discussion is in continuation of the discussion on the  Indian Constitution by the members of the Club.  The meeting was presided by Sj Bibek Pattanaik, former IAS and Chairman of the Odisha Public Service Commission.  Professor Surjya Narayan Mishra, former Professor of Political Science, Utkal University was the Chief Speaker.  The meeting was moderated by Barada Prasanna Das, President of the Thinkers’ Club. Mr Jyoti Malla was incharge of the technical aspects of the meet. Interested persons, members of the club and many in the U Tube participated in this meet.

Prof Mishra in his speech said, about the Federal structure of different countries of the world. According to him, out of the 193 countries of the world, 113 countries have adopted federal democracy. Initially 13 states of America united to have a central structure to guide and control all the states independently. At present, there are 50 States in the American Union. This is an example of Making Federalism.

In the Indian Context, we have adopted “Breaking Federalism”. In the year 1947, we got independence as one country. We have broken this one country to several Federations, i.e. states. According to  him for a healthy democracy and smooth running of states along with the centre, it is essential to have strong states and strong Government at the centre. There should be proper distribution of power between the two. There should be establishment of proper judiciary to redress the imbalance of power between the two.  In this context several commissions were established and they have given proper advice to the government. The Sarkaria committee, Venkat Chaliah Committee and the Punchu committee are prominent mile stones. It is unfortunate that the weighty advises were not carried out yet. The commissions and intellectuals are of the opinion that, there is a necessity to recast the 7th schedule of the Constitution on certain issues relating to the centre state relationship enumerated in the constitution. In the present time the way the governments of West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and  Kerala are behaving, are a headache to the central Government.

The President of the meet, Sree Pattanaik in his speech said, we got independence in the year 1947. The present constitution became effective from the year 1950. The constitution is made taking in to consideration the major points of the constitution of other countries. The life style of today and the use of technology today are much different from that of the year 1947. The constitution is a living document. This reflects life of the citizens. In the greater interest of the democracy, the constitution needs to reflect the present situation. It  is to be revised, cast fresh or modified to cope with the present situations.

The President of the Club, Mr Das discussed about the controversy of ‘SIR’.  His opinion was, people die, change their place of dwelling and new electors emerges and all these can be incorporated through SIR. The resentment of certain states is unjustified.

Engineer Nanda Nandan Das, participated in the discussion and presented his views on the future of government and democracy.

Prof Umasankar Misra, the secretary of the Club discussed on the centre state conflict on different points and was of the opinion that, the anomalies present need to be cared through amendments. He also offered the vote of thanks in honour of the President of the meet, Chief speaker, President of the Club, supporters of technical matters and the audience.

The President Mr Das informed that, the next meeting will be on 18th of this month and the topic is making of the constitution and the role of Congress party in it. Mr Das made a request to the elites to participate in this important meeting and offer their views.