Chief Ministers of West Bengal and Tamil Nadu, Mamata Banerjee and MK Stalin, respectively, have jointly proposed a conference of non-BJP chief ministers. The initiative is still nascent and there is no clear agenda or fixed date but the political context is completely clear. connection between Center and states ruled by opposition parties Questions related to GST are tense due to various factors ranging from partisan behavior of central agencies, Centre’s move to give itself full powers in transfer of IAS, IPS and IFS officers and domineering attitude of several governors. Relations between states are also deteriorating in many instances, even as the Center has less moral authority to be a neutral mediator. The tendency in one state to garner political support by crushing other states, though not new, seems to be drawing support for the BJP from the northern and western regions, while the opposition is generally in the southern region. A communal angle is sometimes added, as Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath did last week in his branding of West Bengal, Kerala or Kashmir, apparently to the high degree of political power enjoyed by Muslims there. Recently in Parliament, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had a heated debate on the scope and limits of Indian federalism.
The autonomy of the states in their relations with the Center depends less on any ideological differences between the parties than on the nature of the sharing of power between them. When the government at the center is dependent on regional parties for survival, it is more liberal to the aspirations of the constituent groups – linguistic, religious, ethnic or political. The BJP’s victory in 2014 marked the end of an alliance spanning 25 years. The current turmoil between the parties in power in the states pertains to the larger questions debated in Parliament, but also individual factors. TRS is concerned about BJP’s expansion in Telangana; The DMK is keen to save its politics of social justice from the unilateralism of the Centre; The TMC, though victorious over the BJP in last year’s assembly election in West Bengal, still has to score a settlement; In Maharashtra, the Shiv Sena is determined to defend its region from the relentless encroachment attempts by its former ally. As for the individual factors of power politics, some CMs and state parties may be less enthusiastic than the TMC, DMK, TRS and Shiv Sena in facing the BJP and the Centre. Andhra Pradesh CM and YSRCP leader Jagan Mohan Reddy and Odisha CM and BJD chief Naveen Patnaik may find it prudent to defend their respective constituencies in tacit agreement with the BJP. A conference of chief ministers can articulate the concerns of the states, but it should be avoided to turn into an opportunity for counterproductive controversy inherent in the electoral count.
,