From: ksrao@POWER.EEE.NDSU.NODAK.EDU
Newsgroups: soc.culture.indian
Subject: Re: Should Indian states need more autonomy?
Date: 4 Sep 92 17:00:32 GMT
Article-I.D.: plains.20154
Reply-To: ksrao@POWER.EEE.NDSU.NODAK.EDU

In article <1992Sep2.155100.5571@oracorp.com>, narayana@oracorp.com (K. T. Narayana) writes:
<In article <3379@creatures.cs.vt.edu< juvvadi@csgrad.cs.vt.edu (Ramana R. Juvvadi) writes:
<<In article <1992Aug30.202729.519@udel.edu< godura@mercury.cis.udel.edu (Ruchir Godura) writes:
<<
<<
<<
<<To sum up, I don't think Kashmir should be treated specially. We need to
<<treat all the states equally. I am in favour of autonomy to every state
<<including Kashmir.
<<
<<
<<<Ruchir.
<<
<<Ramana
<
<This is interesting! There is lot of political talk on autonomy,
<but no body mentions how much autonomy there is already in
<the fedaral framework.
<
<States are allowed to tax and raise revenues! 
<
<States are allowed to spend their own way the moneys acrueing
<to them.
<
<States are allowed to police! The federal government does not police
<states! It is because the states are thoroughly incompetent in enforcing
<the law and order that time and again the center had to step in.
<
<States can enact their own laws with regard to education, curriculum,
<and educational practices and instituitions. These are autonomous
<rights that the state has. 
<
<What kind of autonomy that people are talking about that is not delivered
<in the fedaral constitutional framework! 
<
      Granted that the federal framework provides autonony for the states if
they want to excercise and toe the line of the central government. I will come
to it later


<When people talk of autonomy, they actually mean political autonomy
<alias the breaking of the constitutional link between the center and
<the states. When stated without proper substance to the argument,
       What is required is political autonomy and that is what people are
talking. I do not think anybody who talks of autonony is saying that there
should be no link between centre and the states but the kind of links we now
have should be severed.

<autonomy demands are a subtle attempts at breaking the union.
<
<
<Let us look at a state's ability to raise taxes. They can set the 
<tax rates for agricultural landholdings, urban real estate and
<indeed rural real-estate. At least in AP, the Panchayats can levy
<tax on rural real-estate (nonagricultural) and spend the same.
<Unfortunately none of the states tax the agricultural sector
<adequately. 
<
<There is another argument that is given! The center takes away
<the monies and disposes by itself the monies. But the monies that
<the center takes away are returned back to the states according to
<an agreed formula! Indeed some of the poorer states benifit as
<a result of this accomadation. Look at the subsidies on fertilizers!
<All of the agricultural states receive (indirectly) these subsidies.
<These subsidies are revenues acrueing to the states!
<
<Educational funding (like UGC and the like). Again the investment
<on education is ploughed back from the center's kitty into the
<state.
<
<Some states which are not adjacent to an enemy territory may
<legitimately complain that defense expenditure gets disbursed
<unevenly between states. Again one has to look at the broader 
<spectrum.  Because some states adjacent to enemy territory receive 
<the bulk of the expenditure for frontline installations and the
<stationing of personnel, nonfrontline states (like Karnataka, 
<Andhrapradesh, to name a few) receive the bulk of the defense 
<industrial expenditure. So they are getting back the monies
<that the center takes!
<
<I have yet to come across one single state that managed its economy
<better than the center's management of the national economy! Don't
<tell me Punjab is an example! No actually not. Punjab's success
<is in large part attributable to early investment in agricultural
<sector (with a short jestation perid). States like Orissa and
<Bihar which have rich mineral resources required (and require)
<large jestation periods to breakeven on the investment. I think
<if you ask a common man on the street "who will you trust?"
<the common man will reply that it is the center. All the politicians
<that we have in the states are bozos. Like NT Rama Rao dispersing
<people's money (at rs 2 kilo of rice) like his grandfather's
<property.
<
<just to mention the otherside of the autonomy story!
<....kt

       There are two things in the constitution which severely limits the
'autonony' of the states that the constitution provides. One is the oft-used
Article 340. It has been used innumerable times to dismiss legitimate state
governments in the interests of the 'coutr' (read of the central government)
The other one is that 'the residual subjects will be the subjects of the Union
Government' If these two articles are repealed, the Constitution of India does
provide for autonomy. There would not have been a problem of Kashmir, Punjab or
Assam with Central government as a party to the dispute. 

       But the structure of our political parties is a VERY BIG obstacle to the
principal of autonony. It is a very sad state of affairs when half the
passengers on an Indian Airlines flight from Hyderabad to Delhi (an exageratin
of course) are the dissidents who WANT permission from AICC to topple
Janard(h)ana Reddi. What is the necessisty of AICC intervening in the affairs
of the CLP of Andhra Pradesh. I am giving jusy Congress as an example. The same
thing applies to Jana Singh, Janata Party, Communists and everybody. As long as
the Federal Poltical Party controls the State Political Party the talk of
autonony has no meaning. If the two political parties are different as they are
in the US, there will automatically state autonony as it is enjoyed in the
United States.


      

K. Sankara Rao                          e-mail ksrao@power.eee.ndsu.nodak.edu

Department of Electrical Engineering
North Dakota State University
Fargo, ND 58105  USA

Phone:  (701)237-7217  (o)
        (701)235-9912  (h)
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