In 25 years, India could well see a far different federal structure – vastly powerful states and districts – and even cities – just like the US of A now has.
The US, when they declared independence, saw all the rot and archaic laws and structures of their rulers – Britain. When India gained independence, it carried forward every single aspect of the rot and ruler-is-all-powerful structures and went to some lengths to discard some of the better practices that Britan followed in its own country.
Today, what are all the conflicts in India about?
Language homogenity
Local fiscal powers
Local governance, in short.
Kashmir is the loudest voice.
Naxals exploit the lack of local governance.
In the US model, even the local police chief is elected by the city. Every state has its own fiscal governance with little or no help from the Federal government.
The local-power model has one very important advantage: The locals are closer to the power center. That makes for clear, quick accountability.
The Indian Constitution had envisaged this: Gram Panchayats. But Nehru and his ilk (INC) decided that villagers (and urban citizens) were not educated enough to manage their own affairs and took the fiscal power away, making states dependent on the Central Government and the cities in turn on the state.
The growing absence of governance, including judicial, can only be solved by decentralisation. Even the UK is moving to far greater local government power. The Irish parliament is an example.
But the people who know this but have to commit ‘hara-kiri’ by parting with fiscal power they now enjoy.
That can happen only if Vox Populi becomes belligerent enough or a leader of great emancipation carries this through with considerable political risk to himself.
Anyone’s guess if and when this may happen – my guess is 25 years. By that time, things would have gone from worse to impossible when it no longer serves the politician to try and control all of India from the centre alone. Five election terms.
The first target has to be the blanket protection of all Government employees of any kind of personal prosecution by the public – http://bit.ly/7PpKqv – This one act may give the politician some more time as central controller.
Twitter: @jsvasan