If you did read today’s THE HINDU , on almost every page you turned there you would have found either news report or analysis or Op-Ed on the theme of how the Constitutional holy cow of “Federalism” in India is getting destroyed by the ruling dispensation in the Union Government of the country.
In the name of crusading for the protection of the rights of the States in our country against the Centre’s encroachment on the “federal structure of the Union of States of India”, The HINDU’s Editors (whoever they may singly or jointly be!) seem to have turned their “national newspaper” into a rather shrill and very influential mouthpiece for all agents of regional fissiparity in our country.
Reading today’s HINDU gives me the impression that if the matter, hypothetically speaking, were to be left completely to the discretion of the HINDU Editorial Board, Federalism in our country would soon be replaced by Balkanisationalism. The HINDU these days seems to be strongly advocating the assertion of the Diversity side in stark relief and increasingly for the steady effacement of the Unity side of that coin of “Unity in Diversity” that was minted in the Constitution of India by our national forefathers.
You should first read this Opinion piece headlined “Telugu Leaders on a sticky wicket” . Read between the lines and you will not fail to notice that this piece of mere pamphleteering, which the HINDU has dignified as journalism in fact by publishing it, is really nothing short of insidious incitement of the two honourable Chief Ministers of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh to launch a revolt against the Central Government, all in the name of Federalism.
Then there is this other news report you will find prominently splashed across the front-page about the Chief Minister of Punjab “slamming” the order of the Central Govt. — issued in the interest of national security— extending the jurisdiction of the Indian Border Security Force in the sensitive borderland of Punjab abutting Pakistan, from the earlier 15 Kms limit to now 50 Kms. This extension is described by the Punjab CM (and it gets prominently reported too by the venerable HINDU) to be an invasion of the State’s hinterland and “a direct attack on Federalism”! Ask yourself since when did the protection of national security and the borders of India become an attack on Federalism? Duh?! Well… we may suppose, ever since Pakistan flew an unmanned, armed drone, very recently, deep into Punjab territory to snoop and, if possible, drop a small bomb lethal enough to cause sizeable damage on an Indian Air Force base that was situated in the Punjab “hinterland”.
Taking a cue from Punjab, far across the other side of India in the east, another great crusader for Federalism picked up the same refrain and began war-whooping. Hitting out at the Centre over its decision to extend the jurisdiction of the BSF, the Trinamool Congress on Thursday said it was an “infringement” on the rights of the state and an attack on the federal structure of the country. That is how the Federalist cabal in India feeds upon and into one another.
Then there is yet another news report broadcasting the honourable doyen of Indian politics, Sri Sharad Pawar’s broadside against the Central Government’s “misuse” of the apex investigating agencies, CBI, ED, the IT Dept. and the Narcotics Bureau simply going about doing their respective jobs. Sri Pawar-Ji sees that too as an onslaught on the Federalism of India ! One begins to wonder what on earth is it that compels Sri. Pawar-ji to come out with suo moto statements on a matter concerning investigations into drug cartels peddling narcotics in his state of Maharashtra…. Surely, it’s not his overweening love for Federalism, is it?
Now let’s come nearer home, in our own Tamil Nadu , where the battle for Federalism (which the HINDU espouse so doughtily that it gives it generous coverage almost daily!) takes the form of Tamil chauvinistic jingoism. A la the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra, the Tamils too have their own proud notions of Federalism. Please read this HINDU report:
The Naam Tamizhar Katchi (NTK) is up in arms claiming that 70,000 non-Tamil emigrants into Tamil Nadu have stolen not only ration-cards that ought to have been given to native Tamilians but also thereby, by implication, trampled upon the Federal rights of Tamil Nadu to restrict if not ban Biharis from taking up jobs in this state . Well… what can you say about it?! Perhaps that there are “50 Shades of Federalism” in India… indeed!
Last but not the least, look at the thoroughgoing way in which the HINDU scours the entire length and breadth of our vast country to ferret out like a true-blooded newshound, titbits of news about insignificant happenings somewhere in a corner of India, that even as much as smacks of a possible “human-interest story” angle to the hackneyed theme of “assault on Federalism”! This story is about “10 Central Trade Unions” which, the HINDU suggests to its readers, were indeed the real heroes (not TATAs or the GoI) who painstakingly “built AI for decades”! They are coming out now to voice their protest against the “gifting” of Air India to the TATAs for a proverbial song! As the HINDU report would have all its readers believe it, the fact that it is “10 Central Trade Unions” that have raised the flag of righteous protest against the TATA sale , it must be seen as yet another emphatic protest against the increasing and “dangerous” trend of Centralisation of all economic policy-making in India which too goes against the great “Federalist” spirit and edifice of the country!
Amidst all the raucous political ruckus, the din and bustle, and the terrible sound and fury surrounding the great battle for Federalism that one gets to read about almost daily through the columns of the staid old HINDU these days, I for one as an ordinary citizen of India, began to search today’s issue of the newspaper to see if there was at least even one single news-item that spoke of my country INDIA, that is Bhaaratvarsha, in terms of Unity in Diversity rather than in terms of Diversity sans Unity …. And after much searching, this one below is the only one of that sort which gladdened my forlorn heart with faint patriotic hope …
Thank God, the HINDU Editors do after all possess at least a niggardly, if not utterly non-existent sense of proportion in news-gathering and news-broadcasting…
Bhaarath Maatha ki Jai ! 🇮🇳
Sudarshan Madabushi