http://scroll.in/article/812652/the-daily-fix-kejriwal-versus-modi-is-a-template-for-how-federalism-should-not-work-in-india
Kejriwal versus Modi is a template for how federalism should not work in India 2 hours ago Updated 2 hours ago Shoaib Daniyal Dirty politics On Wednesday, the chief minister of a northern state put out a video message telling citizens that he thought the prime minister was out to murder him. Accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of being “agitated”, Kejriwal warned members of his party that they should be ready to go to jail many times and more. The BJP "can go to any extent", he said. "They can get me killed as well.” There is a sense of deja vu to this. In 2010, when he was chief minister of Gujarat, Modi had himself accused the ruling Congress of giving a “supari” (contract) to the Central Bureau of Investigation to “finish” him. In the months before Kejriwal’s dramatic announcement, the Union government, using the Delhi police under its control, had arrested as many as 10 Aam Aadmi Party legislators in a series of moves that many believe is political vendetta. On Wednesday, the deputy speaker of the Delhi Assembly, Rakhi Birla, was herself summoned by the Delhi police. AAP has also accused the Modi government of now planning to arrest one of its members of parliament, Bhagwant Mann. Federalism in India has always travelled a rocky road. Under the Congress, prime ministers such as Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi would dismiss opposition chief ministers at whim to further their own political agendas. With Indira Gandhi, in fact, the very institution of the chief minister was severely weakened, with puppet heads controlled by Delhi installed in many states. Even by these standards, though, the AAP-BJP fracas is a new low. This simply isn't how Indian federalism is supposed to work. It's especially disappointing that this should happen under a prime minister who has often insisted that one of the main planks of his government will be "cooperative federalism". -- Peace Is Doable -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
