Bone of Contention/Disputes in Co-operative Federalism

1. Dissolution of Article 370: The whole procedure adopted in dissolution of article 370 endangers healthy federalism. Without taking state’s opinion, a full-fledged state was bifurcated and converted into a union territory. This goes against the principles of cooperative federalism which talks about participative decision making and more autonomy to states. Opinions against such a unilateral step were raised in other states too.

2. One Nation, One Exam (NEET): The Introduction of NEET created havoc in the state of Tamil Nadu. From suicides to large scale protest, the examination was resisted mainly due to –

• Uniform Syllabus: Since the syllabus is based on CBSE pattern, it is a disadvantage for other board students.
• Regional Language Issues: The casual attitude of CBSE in converting NEET paper in regional languages created furor, as 49 mistakes were encountered in 2019 Tamil Language NEET exam resulting into state approaching High Court against CBSE.
• Centre-State Relation – Education is a subject in concurrent list, but the upper hand to center’s legislation like NEET which bypasses every other admission process goes against the federal spirit. This further dents the notion of ‘Co-operative federalism’.

3. Role of Governor: The evergreen issue of Governor’s role in Centre-State relations was once again in news. The issue here was the role of Governor in deciding government formation post hung assembly. The governor in case of a hung assembly can use his discretion in inviting a political party to form government. Generally it is considered that a party/coalition with most seats would be invited first, but this was not seen in case of Goa and Manipur (2017), or Karnataka and Maharashtra (2019). This led to Supreme Court’s intervention leading to bitterness in relationship of Centre-State, hampering cooperative federalism.

4. CAA/NRC/NPR: The passage of Citizenship Amendment Bill (awarding citizenship on the basis of religion) created quite a stir in the country. States like Kerala, Punjab and Bengal passed a resolution condemning the Act. Although it has no legal repercussions but it makes a dissent explicit. It once again highlighted the contradictions in opinions of states and central government, questioning the credibility of cooperative federalism.