Political
Reforms
Re-organise states in to smaller states under directly elected Chief Ministers
The demand for a separate state of Telangana had earlier split the various
political parties vertically. During the last general elections, Congress
entered into an electoral arrangement with TRS with the promises of a
separate Telangana State. Subsequently, however, it backtracked resulting
in a divorce with the TRS. Poll time coming nearer, once again the issue
has cropped up and now it appears all the concerned political parties,
including the Congress are in near agreement for a separate Telangana
state.
Separation of Telangana from the existing geographical boundaries of Andhra
Pradesh sure enough is going to lead to demands for smaller states in
different parts of the country. The case for a Royalseema is immediately
being raised. Similarly demand for Vidharbha in Maharashtra, Harit Pradesh
and Purvanchal in Uttar Pradesh are going to gain ground.
Since the last re-organisation of states on linguistic grounds in 1957,
a number of small states came into existence through constitutional amendments.
Experience of smaller states suggests that they have risen faster on the
development food chain. Small states such as Haryana and Himachal Pradesh
took the lead and possibly Uttarakhand may also fall in the same category.
However, for smaller states, there are challenges of their viability,
higher administrative cost and creation of a conducive political environment,
in absence of which the advantages may be lost.
One of the greatest disadvantages of bigger states like Uttar Pradesh
has been the political uncertainty and hung assemblies thrown up by the
electorate. A state like Uttar Pradesh, which has proved difficult to
administer, ranks sixth as a country internationally by way of its population
size alone.
Our Constitution makers possibly failed to devote enough attention on
the organisation of states within the union of India. Subsequent exercise
of 1957 for carving out states on linguistic grounds also did not help.
As long as Congress ruled in most of the bigger states, there were no
political and administrative problems. However, evolution of the Congress
party since 1970s ensured emergence of regional groups based on caste,
creed and religion. The multi-party system meant unstable coalitions emerging
and frequent switching of sides by the legislatures to bring down the
governments. Article 356 had to be invoked fairly or unfairly on many
occasions.
Now since political parties are slowly conceding demand for smaller states,
there is a need for drawing a comprehensive architecture once for all
for re-organising the states keeping in mind the long term goals and objectives,
some of which could be: a stable and strong polity at the state level,
direct election of the chief minister, recognition of state level parties
with not less than 20% votes, two-term limit for the chief minister, term
limits for the office bearers within the state (or national) parties participating
in elections at the state level, creating a conducive atmosphere for drawing
in the best and brightest people in to state polity and institution of
a strong Lokpal to curb corruption.
Keeping in mind the various international democratic models for re-organising
the states globally, US model appears to be more appropriate for re-organising
the Indian states. United States which has three times the land area of
Indiaⳬ has 51 states with only 300 million population and never had
any so-called national threat because of large number of states. Some
of these states are in fact very small in geography. Surely India with
a population of nearly 1.2 billion can afford to have 40 to 50 states
that should settle the demand of various regions, communities and groups
once for all. The second important lesson from the working of US democracy
is that in order to have stable government in the states, chief ministers
of states may be elected directly and the working of the legislatures
could be cast on US model. Other features of US system could also be borrowed
freely, if they could lead to an improvement over the existing system.
Similarly, some good features of other democracies could also be borrowed
liberally.
Re-organistaion of states will call for constitutional reforms for which
major parties must agree. Surely, the reformed states on US model will
provide stability to the states and the state polity will emerge in to
a vibrant political system which could attract the best and brightest
people.
It is high time our policy makers looked at a totally new, innovative
and radical approach keeping in mind certain long term goals rather than
dealing with such an issue in fits and starts.
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