RE: Autonomy in India - Good or Bad ?

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tip of the day:  Voice your opinion at
               http://www.mumbai-central.com/sawaal/
----------------------------------------------------------------------------


Would a Federation of States be suitable for India, like in the US ?

There had been a couple of stern "NO" to this question from Nukkad.
Unfortunately, none of them mentioned their reasons for negating the concept
of autonomy to the States.

While it may not be possible to adopt the state-Federal equation prevailing
in the US, I think there is a case for granting more autonomy to the States.


1. Decentralization of decision making is more democratic way of governance.

2. A unitary Government at the center may not be sensitive to the local
aspirations of the people. This, to a large extent, may be the cause of
secessionist movements in some parts of the country. Kashmir was peaceful
till 1989 when the accumulated frustration of power politics, election
rigging etc triggered discontent among the people. (It is another matter
that this discontent has been exploited and hijacked by our neighbor). 

Let me ask you one thing. If I give you an unmarked map of India with State
boundaries, how many of us will be able to correctly identify each of the
north-eastern states? Most of us may identify even Utaranchal, Chatisgarh
and Jharkhand, but how many of us will correctly identify Manipur or
Meghalaya? Given our ignorance, there is little wonder that people of North
East feel alienated. When people with little knowledge about the local
conditions govern from distant Delhi, frustration builds up. 
 
Hence secessionist tendencies may cannot be the reason to deny autonomy.
Denial of autonomy may be the cause of secessionist tendency. 

3. Will more autonomy to States result in disintegration of India? I think
not. Once local aspirations are satisfied, people are not likely to forgo
the advantages of being part of a larger federation. Think of Punjab. I
think that the separatist movement fizzled out not because it was crushed by
KPS Gill's Police with the help of central forces. I think it fizzled out
because the Sikhs realized that they will be better off within India than as
an independent Sikh Nation and thus the movement lost its raison d'etre.
Rather than ruling by remote control from Delhi, it is this sense of
inter-dependence that the Center should be able to inculcate in the Regions.


India cannot be held together by tying the states to dependency on the
Center for anything and everything.  The center may hold one end of the
string but that may not prevent frustrated people of a state from cutting
off the string itself. I think inter-dependency of autonomous states is the
best antidote for demands for independence. 

4. To what extent we should go in that direction is debatable. But it is
inevitable that we move in that direction.

V.K.Venugopal



------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To Subscribe [Unsubscribe] send a blank message to 
        nukkad-list-request@mumbai-central.com 
with the word 'subscribe' ['unsubscribe'] (without quotes) in the Subject 
of your message.
The list is archived at  http://www.mumbai-central.com/nukkad/archive.html