Welcome to The Political Fix by Rohan Venkataramakrishnan , a newsletter on Indian politics and policy. To get it in your inbox every week,...
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The Big Story: Centri-fugue
Granville Austin, the renowned scholar of the Indian Constitution, described the representatives of the Constituent Assembly from various states as being “members of a family, who for the first time were in possession of their own house, and as a result had to find a way to live together”.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, like others who have governed the country with immense popularity and a Parliamentary majority, appears to have embraced the role of the patriarch in the Indian family, putting forward a simple refrain: my house, my rules.
Take a look at the number of tussles involving the Centre and the states over the last few months:
- GST compensation: After illegally treating the funds collected by the Goods and Services Tax compensation cess as its own funds in years when there was a surplus, the Centre – citing Covid-19 and a massive tax and cess shortfall – insisted that it did not have a responsibility to pay states...
