Make the Union more federal: CMs

By Harish Khare

NEW DELHI, MAY 20. The sixth meeting of the Inter-State Council here today witnessed differences between the Centre and the states over the administrative and financial contents of the federal structure. While the Prime Minister, Mr. A.B. Vajpayee, sought to impress upon the States the need for fiscal discipline, the Chief Ministers stated their contrary points of view assertively, reflecting the political reality of a Union Government dependent upon regional parties.

The States were able to extract a decision out of the Inter-State Council meeting that the Constitution would be appropriately amended so as to force the Governors and the President to give within a prescribed time limit assents to bills passed by legislatures. It has been decided that the timeframe should be one month for Governors and four months for the President, after the lapse of which, a bill so reserved for assent would be assumed to have received the requisite assent.

However, the Union Home Minister, Mr. L.K. Advani, later clarified that it did not mean that the constitutional heads were constrained to give assent to a bill; they could return the bill, without giving reasons.

Similarly, there were sharp differences on the question of Articles 256, 257 and 365, which the Prime Minister described as ``important for the unity of the country''. While the Chief Ministers belonging to regional parties were vociferous in demanding the scrapping of these three and Article 356, the Congress(I) Chief Ministers of Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan warned the Centre that these ``wholesome'' provisions had to be used wisely and sparingly.

The matter was referred to the George Fernandes Sub- committee, which is already deliberating on the future of Article 356. The Committee includes Chief Ministers of Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Tamil Nadu and the Finance Minister of West Bengal.

After the meeting, though Mr. Advani sought to pat himself on the back for recognising the importance of the ISC as an instrument for ``strengthening the contents of federalism'', the ruling party's ally, the Akali Dal Chief Minister, Mr. Parkash Singh Badal, warned that ``it would be dangerous to leave the future of federalism to the whims and fancies of individuals or parties at the Centre at a particular time''. Tamil Nadu, too, favoured the deletion of Article 356 and Article 365.

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