Welcome to the Political Fix by Rohan Venkataramakrishnan, a weekly newsletter on Indian politics and policy. To get it in your inbox ever...
Welcome to the Political Fix by Rohan Venkataramakrishnan, a weekly newsletter on Indian politics and policy. To get it in your inbox every Monday, sign up here.
If you want journalism with spine not spin, consider supporting us either by subscribing to Scroll+ or contributing to the Scroll.in Reporting Fund.
The Big Story: Centrifuge
At the start of 2020, we asked on the Political Fix: Will the states vs Centre battle dominate India over the next decade?
After all, it was assumed when Narendra Modi first took charge as prime minister in 2014 that he might offer a more federal outlook. As chief minister of Gujarat for over a decade, Modi had been vocal about the concerns of the states. On coming to power, one of his government’s key slogans was “cooperative federalism”.
Yet six years later, it is clear that Modi’s tenure has seen even more centralisation than before. Rather than use the Centre to empower the states, Modi, it seems, has sought to run the country as if it were a state.
With India entering the second half of its three-week lockdown effort to halt the spread of the new coronavirus (3,374 cases and 77 deaths in India as of 5 pm on Sunday), this question has once again come into sharp focus.
First, the Centre decided to announce lockdowns...
