Reimagining Indian federalism The return of coalition governance to New Delhi offers hope

President Droupadi Murmu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and to be sworn-in Ministers stand for the national anthem during the swearing-in ceremony at the Rashtrapathi Bhavan on June 9, 2024.  | Photo Credit: Reuters

On June 4, 2024, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) tripped up short of the majority mark in the Lok Sabha, compelling it to hobble towards power by leaning heavily on its partners in the National Democratic Alliance, all of which are regional parties. Aside from placing fetters on the BJP’s overweening arrogance and decelerating our descent into majoritarian autocracy, the return to New Delhi of coalition governance offers another hope: that of revitalising India’s beleaguered federal structure, which has sustained countless death blows over the past decade.

As I argued in the Lok Sabha last year — while opposing the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Act, 2023 — what we have repeatedly seen since 2014 is an insidious, inexorable effort to curtail the autonomy of our States. Despite Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s rhetoric of cooperative federalism, all we have seen is the rise of a coercive and combative brand of federalism that seeks to centralise power at the expense of the States.