Centre-state ties: CPM wants to clip wings of Governors

The CPI(M), which once resented West Bengal Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi’s public statements on Nandigram, called for a debate on the requirement of an explicit norm debarring governors from publicly expressing disagreements or differences with the state Government. The party feels the provision of centrally appointed Governors has become an “anachronism” in a federal democratic polity.

The party, which has always been critical of Article 356, suggested amendments in the Constitution to ensure that the provision is used only under exceptional circumstances like during a serious threat to national unity or to the secular fabric of the country. No Government should be dismissed by the Centre merely on the basis of a report sent by the Governor that there is a breakdown of the Constitution in the state, it said.

“The Centre has draconian powers which are used as a threat to dismiss state governments. Article355 and 356 have been misused and we have been demanding that no Central Government can arbitrarily dismiss a state government,” CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat said releasing the document.

Having failed to block operationalisation of the Indo-US nuclear deal, the CPI(M) also called for a constitutional amendment to make legislative sanction mandatory for such international treaties and the consent of states for agreements like the WTO treaty which has serious implications for state subjects like agriculture.

Besides, it calls for devolution of 50 per cent of the total pool of collection of central taxes to states, granting of powers to states to tax certain services, including some which are currently being taxed by the Centre, and amending of the Constitution to provide more flexibility and autonomy to states with regard to market borrowing. “The share of market borrowing of the states should be increased from about 15 per cent currently to 50 per cent,” it suggested as also doing away with the practise of putting conditionalities on debt relief for the states on account of central loans.