The Centre presses for double-engine sarkar, but there is only one engine in New Delhi, and only a bogie in Karnataka, said an activist.
Published Apr 19, 2023 | 7:29 PM ⚊ Updated Apr 19, 2023 | 7:30 PM
Bahutva Karnataka members with the report card on how Federalism has been affected in Karnataka
Bahutva Karnataka, a prominent civil society group in the state, released its fifth “report card” on the performance of the incumbent BJP government in the state.
In the report card, on federalism, the civil society group marked the Basavaraj Bommai government as “fail”.
The report card was on how federalism had taken a hit culturally, financially, and politically in Karnataka under BJP, earning it the grade ‘F’ (Fail).
The Report Card on Subject: Federalism
“The Constitution describes India as a ‘Union of States’. The Government of Karnataka has increasingly been run by the whims of puppeteers in New Delhi and has not been accountable to the people of Karnataka,” the report card states.
“The Centre presses for double-engine sarkar, but only one engine is there in New Delhi, and it’s only a bogie in Karnataka,” citizen activist and advocate Vinay K Sreenivasa told South First.
He added: “The second chief minister of Karnataka, Kengal Hanumanthiah, had once said, ‘Without decentralisation, our unity is in danger.’ In the name of double-engine government, the state is losing its status to people in New Delhi.”
Federalism in Karnataka has been affected financially to a large extent at present, said the civil society group.
Karnataka’s share of GST, other taxes, and funds for Centrally sponsored schemes appears to have declined significantly during the last five years.
Under the changed formula of tax devolution to the states, Karnataka is the biggest loser, the Bahutva Karnataka’s report stated.
“The state’s share in the divisible pool has dropped from 4.71 percent (under the 14th Finance Commission) to 3.64 percent under the 15th Finance Commission for 2021-26,” said Sreenivasa.
He added: “Karnataka now receives ₹40 for every ₹100 tax revenue that it contributes, down from ₹53 earlier.”
The state has also been getting only a pittance for natural calamity relief, be it for floods or drought, said the civil society group.
It took three months for the Centre to release funds for flood relief in 2021, and that too after former chief minister BS Yediyurappa made a personal appeal to the prime minister.
A strong regional leader like Yediyurappa was removed from the chief minister’s post without reason, said the group.
Basavaraj Bommai, who replaced him, was not allowed to constitute a full-fledged council of ministers for months together, it added.
The phrase “double-engine sarkaar”, commonly used today, runs contrary to the very principle of federalism, said the group.
The Union government should not discriminate among state governments based on whether their party is in power, Bahutva Karnataka’s report card stated.
Bahutva Karnataka members with the report card on how Federalism has been affected in Karnataka
Gowri from the NGO Karnataka Janashakti told South First that federalism has taken a hit culturally with the Union government’s tendency to impose linguistic and cultural norms on the state had not been resisted enough by the state government.
The state government, in fact, encouraged this or stayed silent, she said.
She added that the imposition of Hindi in particular was a sign of coercive federalism rather than cooperative federalism.
“When Kannada has the ‘classical language’ status in Karnataka, why is Hindi being imposed on Kannadigas despite opposition? Hindi Diwas is celebrated despite widespread opposition. Be it examinations in Railways or banking sectors, Hindi has become mandatory,” Gowri said.
In many of the Union government’s programmes organised in Karnataka, Hindi — rather than Kannada — is used on the stage, said Bahutva Karnataka.
The state’s plea to the Centre to conduct competitive examinations in Kannada has fallen on deaf ears.
The CRPF recruitment exams were to be initially held only in English and Hindi. While neighbouring states objected, Karnataka did not, members of Bahutva Karnataka stated.
In 2014, the Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS), which conducts exams for recruitment to public-sector banks, began conducting exams in English and Hindi only.
Earlier, the examinations were held in all 13 regional languages, and the Karnataka government did little to nothing to undo the injustice meted out to the people of Karnataka, added the group.
Federalism in Karnataka had been affected politically as elected representatives were turning stooges to people at the Centre and not resisting or questioning when the Centre attempted to overstep and encroach into state subjects, said the group.
A few examples would be the state BJP government vowing to resolve the Mahadayi water-sharing dispute, but subsequently, there was silence on this issue as all the stakeholders involved were BJP-run states, it explained.
The state government failed to protect its decision-making power on matters in the state subjects list such as education, and cooperatives, said the group.
For example, it had done little to oppose attempts by Amul to enter the market at the expense of Nandini, a successful cooperative in the state, it said.
The enforcement of NEET — the National Eligibility Entrance Test — for undergraduate medical courses, was flagged by Tamil Nadu as being in violation of the principles of federalism since it fell under the ambit of public health, which was a state subject, said the group, pointing out that the Karnataka government stayed silent on it.
The Bahutva Karnataka report also stated that there have been several instances in recent years where the Union government pushed the Karnataka government to pass laws through the ordinance route.
For example, the Karnataka Agricultural Produce Marketing (Regulation and Development) Amendment Act of 2020 was brought in by the state government under pressure from the NITI Aayog, said the report.
The civil rights group also pointed at government advertisements which sport the prime minister’s portraits so prominently, which makes people wonder if Narendra Modi had become the chief minister of Karnataka.
The state government has shown no interest in standing up for the state’s rights, said the group, adding that it had also failed — along with a majority of MPs from Karnataka — in getting justice for the state.
