Chains of Command

With federal resistance to the CAA, Article 256 prepares to take centre stage

01 March 2020
In 1968, Yashwantrao Chavan (right), the home minister in Indira Gandhi’s cabinet, warned the Kerala chief minister EMS Namboodiripad (left) to heed Article 256 of the Constitution. Now, the Modi government has issued the same warning to Kerala again.
Left: James Whitmore/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images; Right: Keystone/Getty Images
In 1968, Yashwantrao Chavan (right), the home minister in Indira Gandhi’s cabinet, warned the Kerala chief minister EMS Namboodiripad (left) to heed Article 256 of the Constitution. Now, the Modi government has issued the same warning to Kerala again.
Left: James Whitmore/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images; Right: Keystone/Getty Images

“I am issuing this warning because we should all be concerned about the country,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi told both houses of parliament a week into the budget session. “If the Rajasthan assembly passes a law but no one in Rajasthan is ready to obey it,” he asked, where would it lead? “Can the country run like this? Should we go on the path to anarchy?”

Only what had irked Modi was not the residents of a state defying local legislation, but entire states lining up to resist a central law—the Citizenship (Amendment) Act. To date, a dozen states and the union territories of Delhi and Puducherry have rebelled against the CAA. Six of them have also adopted resolutions denouncing it. Modi’s reproach was aimed at this reality.

India’s federal balance is under strain, with a stern centre snarling at recalcitrant states. We have witnessed a similar combat before. That early episode—and its unlearnt lessons—ignited a belligerence that still gnaws at Indian federalism.

Shubhankar Dam is a chair professor of public law and governance at the University of Portsmouth, United Kingdom. 

Keywords: Narendre Modi Pinarayi Vijayan Citizenship (Amendment) Act National Register of Citizens Kerala West Bengal Constitution federalism
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