Based on the first few Articles of Belgian Constitution given below — explain how federalism is visualised in that country. Try and write a similar Article for the Constitution of India.
Title I: On Federal Belgium, its components and its territory.
Article 1: Belgium is a Federal State made up of communities and regions.
Article 2: Belgium is made up of three communities. The French Community, the Flemish Community and the German Community.
Article 3: Belgium is made up of three regions: The Walloon region, the Flemish region and the Brussels region.
Article 3: Belgium is made up of three regions: The Walloon region, the Flemish region and the Brussels region.
Article 5: The Walloon region is made up of the following provinces: The Walloon Brabant, Hainault, Liege, Luxemburg and Namur. The Flemish region is made up of the following provinces: Antwerp, the Flemish Brabant, West Flanders, East Flanders and Limburg. ........
In Indian Constitution Article 1 says India that is, Bharat shall be a Union of States.
India apsires to be a society that is free of caste discrimination but the seats in each province were distributed among three main communities, Hindu, Muslims, Sikhs and general.
In India there is a union of 28 States and seven Union Territories. According to Article 1:
1. India, that is, Bharat shall be a Union of States.
2. The states and union territories thereof shall be as specified in the First Schedule.
In the Constitution of India the eighth (8th) Schedule describes different languages. Eighteen languages are given in this schedule. 1. Assamese, 2. Bengali, 3. Gujarati, 4. Hindi. 5. Kannada, 6. Kashmiri, 7. Konkani, 8. Malyalam, 9. Manipuri, 10. Marathi, 11. Nepali, 12. Oriya,. 13. Punjabi, 14. Sanskrit, 15. Sindhi, 16. Tamil, 17.Telugu, 18. Urdu. These languages are spoken in different regions of India. Article 344 (1) and Article 351.
Article 1 (2) States the states and the union territories thereof shall be as specified in the First Schedule.
From the list of following events which ones would you identify with the functioning of federalism? Why?
1. The Centre on Tuesday announced Sixth Schedule status to GNLF-led Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council, which would ensure greater autonomy to the governing body in the Hill district of West Bengal. A tripartite Memorandum of Settlement was signed in New Delhi between the Centre, the West Bengal Government and the Subhash Ghising-led Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) after two days of hectic deliberations.
2. Government for action plan for rain hit States: Centre has asked the rain ravaged States to submit detailed plans for reconstruction to enable it to respond to their demands for extra relief expeditiously.
3. New Commissioner for Delhi: The Capital is getting a new municipal commissioner. Confirming this, present MCD Commissioner Rakesh Mehta said he has received his transfer orders and that he is likely to be replaced by an I.A.S officer Ashok Kumar, who is serving as the Chief Secretary in Arunachal Pradesh. Mehta, a 1975 batch IAS officer, has been heading the MCD for about three–and a half years.
4. CU Status for Manipur University: Rajya Sabha on Wednesday passed a Bill to convert the Manipur University into a Central University with the Human Resource Development Minister promising such institutions in the North Eastern States of Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura and Sikkim as well.
5. Funds released: The Centre has released Rs. 553 lakh to Arunachal Pradesh under its rural water supply scheme. The first instalment was of Rs. 466.81 lakh.
6. We’ll teach the Biharis how to live in Mumbai: Around 100 Shiv Sainiks stormed J.J. Hospital, disrupted daily operations, raised slogans and threatened to take matters into their own hands if no action was taken against non-Maharashtrian students.
7. Demand for dismissal of Government: The Congress Legislature Party (CLP) in a representation submitted to State Governor recently, has demanded dismissal of the ruling Democratic Alliance of Nagaland (DAN) Government for its alleged financial mismanagement and embezzlement of public money.
8. NDA Government asks naxalites to surrender arms: Amid a walkout by opposition RJD and its allies Congress and CPI (M), the Bihar Government today appealed to the naxalites to shun the path of violence and reaffirmed its pledge to root out unemployment to usher in a new era of development in Bihar.
1. The very fact that the State Concerned i.e. West Bengal was made a party to the settlement marks the event as a manifestation of working of the federalism in India.
2. A federal set-up is characterized by a sensitive centre towards the needs of the constituting units. The centre wants to help the rain ravaged states. It means it is sensitive to their problems. Hence this action of the centre could be identified with the functioning of fedaralism.
3. An officer from Arunachal Pradesh is transferred to Delhi. It clearly shows the functioning of federalism.
4. In the Indian federal set up education comes under Concurrent List. It is important to strengthen federation by establishing central institutes although it will undermine the control of states. It could well be identified as an example of the functioning of federalism.
5. This event is also identified with the functioning of federalism because here centre has released funds for state (Arunachal Pradesh) under its rural supply scheme.
6. Acts of Shiv Sainiks completely undermine the federal structure of the country. These acts can not be identified as the working of federalism, whose chief objective is to promote one national identity based on fraternity. A culture of trust, cooperation, mutual respect and restraint amongst the people of the different units is a sine qua non for the smooth functioning of the federation.
7. This event comes in the list of those events which identify the functioning of federalism.
8. This is an illustration of state government's function.
Majority of people from the States of north India-Rajasthan, Madhya, Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar speak Hindi. If all these states are combined to form one state, would it be in tune with the idea of federalism? Give arguments.
No, it does not seem to be in tune with the idea of federalism, because it would not be in such a position that it would be called federation. As we know the federation has many characteristics, unity in diversity. Or we can say that federalism is an institutional mechanism to accommodate two sets of - politics one at the regional level and the other at the national level.
If all the Hindi speaking regions or the northern states–Rajasthan, Gujarat, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh etc. are combined then there would be only a single unit or the new state would be unitary and not a federation.
Which of the following should be the basis for the formation of a state? Why?
(a) Common language
(b) Common economic interest
(c) Common religion
(d) Administrative convenience.
The administrative convenience should be the base for formation of a state because now-a-days the people and the political process must develop a culture and a set of values and virtues like mutual trust, tolerance and a spirit of cooperation. Federalism celebrates both unity as well as diversity. But in a federation, different units (states) are formed on the basis of common linguistic regions.
Think which of the following statements would be correct. State why.
1. Federalism enhances the possibility of people from different regions to interact without the fear of one's culture being imposed upon them by others.
2. Federal system will hinder easier economic transaction between two different regions that have distinct types of resources.
3. A federal system will ensure that the powers of those at the centre will remain limited.
1. Federalism enhances the possibility of people from different regions to interact without fear of one's culture being imposed upon them by others. The statement is correct because in federalism, the federal government is a system in which the totality of governmental powers is divided and distributed by the National Constitution between central government and the government of the individual states or other territorial sub-divisions of which the federation is composed.
2. It will not happen. As the resources are of distinct types, federalism will give impetus to the economic transaction amongst the different regions.
3. Certainly the federalism implies more powers to the constituting unit of federation.
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