oppn parties States Unite To Fight Overreach By The Centre

News Snippets

  • Supreme Court questions the continuing relevance of two-child norms. The Court observed that falling fertility rates have weakened the population-control rationale behind laws disqualifying people with more than two children from contesting local body elections. It referred the issue to a larger Bench for consideration
  • Supreme Court declines to shift Tirupati laddu case outside Andhra Pradesh. The Court rejected a plea seeking transfer of the trial, despite arguments that political statements by Andhra Pradesh's Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister could affect the fairness of proceedings
  • Supreme Court transfers Azam Khan's fresh ED bail plea to Allahabad High Court. The apex court declined to consider the Samajwadi Party leader's bail request in a fresh Enforcement Directorate case and directed that it be listed before a division Bench of the High Court on November 16
  • Two killed in Delhi building collapse; contractor booked. Two bodies were recovered after a building collapsed in Chawri Bazaar. Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta said the contractor had been booked and the concerned junior and assistant engineers suspended
  • Uttar Pradesh voter rolls show a 2.4-crore discrepancy. A difference of approximately 2.4 crore names has been reported between the state's panchayat and rural Assembly voter lists. The Election Commission has ordered the two sets of rolls to be matched
  • Gujarat announces 3% dearness allowance hike. The state government announced a three-percentage-point increase in dearness allowance for government employees and pensioners ahead of Diwali
  • Sensex and Nifty post their strongest single-day gains in months. The Sensex surged 2,008.61 points, or 2.60%, to close at 79,310.01, while the Nifty 50 climbed 576 points, or 2.40%, to 24,536.60. Financial and automobile stocks led the rally, supported by falling crude prices and renewed foreign investor buying
  • Maaya Rajeshwaran reaches WTA-level quarter-final. The 17-year-old Indian defeated Poland's Weronika Falkowska 6-4, 6-3, becoming the first Indian woman since Sania Mirza in 2012 to reach a quarter-final at a WTA Tour-level singles event
  • Tanvi Patri reaches Youth Olympics badminton final. The 15-year-old defeated Japan's Yuzuno Watanabe in the semi-final, assuring India of a medal and becoming the first Indian badminton player to reach the girls' singles final at the Youth Olympics
  • India beat Pakistan 3-2 in SAFF Championship. India defeated Pakistan in a closely contested match, having led 3-0 before conceding two late goals. The victory was reported as a significant result for India's second-string side
  • India beat Japan 4-1 to win a record sixth Asian Champions Trophy. India recovered from an early deficit to defeat Japan in the final at Mohali, extending its record as the tournament's most successful men's team
  • The Supreme Court issued notice to the Centre and the Election Commission on a petition challenging Section 16 of the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners Act, 2023, which grants the CEC and Election Commissioners protection from legal proceedings for acts performed in their official duties. The petition argues that such blanket immunity could leave citizens without an effective remedy for alleged wrongdoing by the Commission
  • The Supreme Court told voters whose names were deleted from Delhi's draft electoral rolls not to be apprehensive about seeking re-enrolment through Form 6, after the Election Commission assured it that such applicants would not be prosecuted merely because their names had appeared in earlier rolls
  • Congress leader Rahul Gandhi opened the party's campaign for the 2027 Punjab Assembly elections with an Insaaf rally in Sangrur, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann's home district, accusing the AAP government of failing to control drugs, gangster violence and corruption. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge outlined six commitments, including a drug-free Punjab, protection of farmers, employment for young people and action against corruption
  • Rahul Gandhi accused the AAP government of running Punjab through a remote control from Delhi and questioned Bhagwant Mann's ability to tackle drug abuse, making personal allegations about the Chief Minister's conduct during their time together in Parliament
Stock markets on fire due to US results, Sensex gains 2008 points to reach its highest level in 8 months
oppn parties
States Unite To Fight Overreach By The Centre

By Our Editorial Team
First publised on 2022-02-15 05:55:07

About the Author

Sunil Garodia The India Commentary view

With Centre-State relations once again in focus due to the Centre's unilateral decisions regarding expanding the jurisdiction of the BSF, the change in IAS-IPS rules to force states to make more officers available for Central duty, sharing of PDS data, the problems over GST, the role of Central investigative agencies and the problems some states are having with governors, it was expected that opposition-ruled states, especially those ruled by regional parties, would come together to fight this jointly. West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee once again took the lead and had discussions over telephone with her counterparts in Tamil Nadu and Telangana. Both MK Stalin and K Chandrasekhar Rao immediately agreed to hold a conclave in Delhi sometime in March of thereafter.

Chief Ministers of opposition-ruled states have been protesting the Centre's attempts to chip away at the powers of the state. They are especially miffed that the Centre is taking these decisions unilaterally without any discussions with the states. For instance, when the jurisdiction of BSF was extended, some states pointed out the difficulties in implementing the order as large swathes of areas that were not under any threat would come under the BSF and would cause problems for civilians, including the administration and the police. They demanded that the Centre hold consultations.

Similarly, some states have pointed out that if the Centre takes away officers, they would face a shortage and district administration will suffer. In Tamil Nadu and West Bengal, elected governments are facing problems due to the alleged overreach by the respective governors in the states. But the point is that Congress-ruled states are also facing the same problems and regional-party-only opposition front will represent only a part of the opposition.

Then there are other contradictions. AAP party should be a part of this front, but TMC and AAP party ware fighting in Goa. The Congress is an alliance partner of the DMK in Tamil Nadu and the Shiv Sena and the NCP in Maharashtra.  How will the regional front include the DMK, the Shiv Sena and the NCP and exclude the Congress? The Centre's overreach must be tackled by the opposition in a united manner and the Congress needs to be included in any such front.