Governors are undermining federalism and democracy by acting as mere hitmen for the Centre in many States, constitutional scholar Rajeev Dhavan said here on Saturday (January 25, 2025).
“Checks and balances envisaged under the constitutional scheme have collapsed in present-day India,” Mr. Dhavan said at a conference on the Constitution at the India International Centre. There has to be a better way of appointing Governors, and the current GST regime has decimated fiscal federalism, he said. “We cannot have fiscal federalism when States are forced to beg the Centre for finances,” Mr. Dhavan said.
The only way, he said, to restore the constitutional scheme was people’s activism within the constitutional framework.
“Unity without uniformity is the key to a more perfect union,” Balveer Arora, Professor, Jawaharlal Nehru University, said.
Federalism is part of the basic structure of the Constitution, the former Supreme Court judge Justice Madan Lokur (retd) said. Parliament has been subordinated by the political executive, undermining democracy and federalism. He said it was Indira Gandhi who set this trend of executive supremacy in motion, when she was Prime Minister.
Former J&K Governor N.N. Vohra and Neera Chandhoke, Visiting Professor, Jawaharlal Nehru University, spoke
Published - January 25, 2025 11:05 pm IST
