CPI(M) against TMC's plan to forge alliance in fight against BJP's 'onslaught' on federalism

Attempts by Mamata Banerjee and K Chandrashekar Rao to transform a proposal to forge a fight against ruling BJP’s “onslaught” on federalism into a political alliance has attracted opposition from the CPI(M) even as it advocated the need for a joint struggle involving all non-BJP governments, including the Congress dispensations.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata and her Telangana counterpart Rao have revived the talk about taking on the BJP on the federalism issue by ignoring the Congress and have reached out to non-Congress chief ministers, namely M K Stalin (Tamil Nadu) and Uddhav Thackeray (Maharashtra), for a meeting.

While welcoming the idea of a meeting of Opposition CMs, the CPI(M) has raised concerns over the platform taking a political colour, insisting that such a move would be “counter-productive”. The “sole agenda” of the meeting should be “Centre’s onslaught on federalism”, it said.

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One of the issues for the CPI(M) would be the presence of Mamata-led Trinamool Congress and it does not want to share space with its arch-rival on a political platform. It was also not comfortable with the position taken by Mamata, who had said, “No regional parties share good terms with Congress. Congress will go its way, we will go our way.”

Coming out in support of the Congress, the CPI(M) said in an editorial in its mouthpiece Peoples Democracy, said it was true that the Congress, while in power, had advanced centralisation drive. “But at present, the Congress state governments in the opposition are also bearing the brunt of the centre’s onslaught on states’ rights. So, all non-BJP state governments must be mobilised for the joint platform.”

It warned against Mamata “seeking to conflate” the proposed meeting of CMs with the “forging of an alternative alliance of regional parties” will “only detract from the serious business” of protecting the federal principle.

The editorial then went on to say that the talk of a Federal Front by Rao or Mamata’s “attempt to project herself as heading an alternative alliance are political matters”, which “should not be mixed up with the task” of bringing all Opposition CMs together.

It said a conference of CMs should focus “exclusively on federalism and states’ rights" and any attempt to utilise such a forum to cobble up political alliances will undermine the importance of the issue of federalism and states’ rights and end up being “counter-productive”.

According to the editorial, the need for a united stand of state governments in defence of states’ rights “cannot be overstated” and the Modi government has, in its second term, “stepped up the drive to centralise and concentrate all powers in its hands; no sphere of centre-state relations has been spared from the depredations of the Centre”. It cited the bifurcation of Jammu and Kashmir into two Union Territories as the “most extreme step” during this period.

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The CPI(M) also claimed that there were also the "targeted attacks on specific states which represent a different political complexion, or, those that do not follow the writ of the Centre".

"When the centre amended the National Capital Territory of Delhi Act in April 2021 to declare that the Lieutenant Governor is the Government of Delhi and nullified the powers of the elected government and legislature, this was not just an attack on the AAP government but it was striking at the roots of the role of an elected state government under the constitution. It is imperative that all the democratic and secular forces take a joint stand in defence of federalism and states’ rights,” it said.

It also referred to the now-repealed three farm laws, which encroached on the states’ rights, while the New Education Policy (NEP) reflects the “centralising drive” at various levels of education. “Governors in non-BJP ruled states are increasingly becoming partisan and are acting as agents of the centre. The latest proposal of the Centre to amend the All India Service rules of IAS and IPS officers would lead to the centre having arbitrary powers to recall officers from the states to the centre bypassing the state government. The list goes on endlessly,” it said.

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