Jagran Josh
What is Federalism?
Federalism is a system of government in which the power is divided between a central authority and various constituent units of the country.
Usually, a federation has two levels of government. One is the government for the entire country that is usually responsible for a few subjects of common national interest. The others are governments at the level of provinces or states that look after much of the day-to-day administering of their state.
Key Features of Federalism
1. There are two or more levels (or tiers) of government
2. Different tiers of government govern the same citizens, but each tier has its own jurisdiction in specific matters of legislation, taxation and administration.
3. The jurisdictions of the respective levels or tiers of government are specified in the constitution. So the existence and authority of each tier of government is constitutionally guaranteed.
4. The fundamental provisions of the constitution cannot be unilaterally changed by one level of government. Such changes require the consent of both the levels of government.
5. Courts have the power to interpret the constitution and the powers of different levels of government. The highest court acts as an umpire if disputes arise between different levels of government in the exercise of their respective powers.
6 Sources of revenue for each level of government are clearly specified to ensure its financial autonomy.
7. The federal system thus has dual objectives: to safeguard and promote unity of the country, while at the same time accommodate regional diversity.
What Makes India A Federal Country?
The Constitution declared India as a Union of States. Although it did not use the word federation, the Indian Union is based on the principles of federalism.
The Constitution provided a three-fold distribution of legislative powers between the Union Government and the State Governments.
Union List includes subjects of national importance, such as defence of the country, foreign affairs, banking, communications and currency.
State List contains subjects of State and local importance, such as police, trade, commerce, agriculture and irrigation..
Concurrent List includes subjects of common interest to both the Union Government as well as the State Governments, such as education, forest, trade unions, marriage, adoption and succession.
According to our constitution, the Union Government has the power to legislate on ‘residuary’ subjects.
Union Territories in the Indian Union are small regions that lack the ability to be independent states or merge with existing states. Examples include Chandigarh, Lakshadweep, and Delhi. They don’t possess the powers of a regular state and are governed by the Central Government with special authority.
How is Federalism practised?
Linguistic States
In 1947, the boundaries of several old States of India were changed in order to create new States. This was done to ensure that people who spoke the same language lived in the same State. Some States were created on the bases of culture, ethnicity or geography.
Language policy
Hindi was identified as the official language. There are 21 other languages recognised as Scheduled Languages by the Constitution. The Central Government responded by agreeing to continue the use of English along with Hindi for official purposes.
Centre-State relations
After 1990, there was the beginning of the era of COALITION GOVERNMENTS at the Centre. This led to a new culture of power sharing and respect for the autonomy of State Governments. Federal power sharing is more effective today than it was in the early years after the Constitution came into force.
Decentralisation in India
Federal power sharing in India needs another tier of government, below that of the State governments. This is the rationale for decentralisation of power.
When power is taken away from Central and State governments and given to local governments, it is called decentralisation.
A major step towards decentralisation was taken in 1992. The Constitution was amended to make the third-tier of democracy more powerful and effective.
Now it is constitutionally mandatory to hold regular elections to local government bodies.
Seats are reserved in the elected bodies and the executive heads of these institutions for the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes.
At least one-third of all positions are reserved for women.
An independent institution called the State Election Commission has been created in each State to conduct panchayat and municipal elections.
The State governments are required to share some powers and revenue with local government bodies. The nature of sharing varies from State to State.
Rural local government is popularly known by the name panchayati raj. Each village, or a group of villages in some States, has a gram panchayat. This is a council consisting of several ward members, often called panch, and a president or sarpanch.
The local government structure goes right up to the district level. A few gram panchayats are grouped together to form what is usually called a panchayat samiti or block or mandal. The members of this representative body are elected by all the panchyat members in that area.
All the panchayat samitis or mandals in a district together constitute the zilla (district) parishad. Most members of the zilla parishad are elected. Zilla parishad chairperson is the political head of the zilla parishad.
Municipalities are established in towns, while big cities are organised into municipal corporations. Both municipalities and municipal corporations are overseen by elected bodies comprising people’s representatives. The political head of a municipality is the municipal chairperson, whereas in a municipal corporation, this position is known as the mayor.
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