Instantances of state chief ministers arousing the ire of their counterparts in other states are on the rise. Just the other day, the government of West Bengal irked that of Rajasthan over the tawdry response to a bazar blaze in Kolkata that saw Rajasthanis suffer losses. The Lt Governor of Delhi recently suggested that identity cards be made mandatory for all residents of the capital, only to provoke sharp reactions from the chief ministers of Bihar and Chhattisgarh, both of whom saw the proposal as a discriminatory measure against migrant workers from their states that could expose them to police harassment or worse. In federal India, they argue, such identity-driven policies are unconstitutional. Earlier, too, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar had taken strong exception to the assessment of Delhi chief minister Sheila Dixit that there were too many ?outsiders? swarming into the city and creating a law-and-order problem.
There is a new assertiveness in the air, with state leaders willing to vocalise the concerns of their localised? some would say linguistic?constituencies regardless of which state?s jurisdiction the matter comes under. Unlike in the past, this is not a straight state-versus-state tussle over such issues as river water sharing. It involves an identification with co-lingual cohorts. Only last month, Tamil Nadu chief minister M Karunanidhi had urged the country?s Prime Minister to take up cudgels on behalf of Malaysia?s Tamil-speaking minority with that country?s government; the sentiments that dominate domestic discussions on Sri Lanka?s crisis, of course, are a story of their own. The voices of chief ministers seem destined to be heard far beyond the borders of their states. Some of this new spirit of federal assertion stems from a sense of grievance, a sentiment exploited cleverly by Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi, who keeps harping on how well the state is doing despite Delhi?s alleged attempts to denigrate it. While this heightened sense of ?state nationalism? generates its own set of inter-state comparisons, it also implies a gradual reduction in the Centre?s centrality to public discourse within the country. Some analysts trace this phenomenon to the decline of umbrella politics that could credibly claim to speak for all Indians, regardless of other identity tags. If so, then it does not augur well for the future of the Union of India. Federalism is good. Ultra-nationalism is not.
