Politics dictate Centre's approach to State issues

Should the State of Andhra Pradesh have gone to the Supreme Court seeking its intervention for the implementation of the AP Reorganization Act, 2014, in full and as stipulated in the Act for justice? The AP government filed a petition the other day in the Apex Court seeking division of assets of institutions as mentioned in the Act as almost all of these are in Hyderabad or Telangana State.

When the State was bifurcated, it should have been mandatorily done by the Telangana government as AP was at a great disadvantage over several issues including that of losing the capital. For reasons best known to it, the Telangana government kept postponing it on one plea or the other. Rather, it should have been the responsibility of the Centre to force the implementation of such provisions. Yet, it did not happen. The Centre remained non-committal on almost everything including according the Special Category Status to AP despite seeking the same for 10 years.

However, look at the alacrity with which the Centre interjected in the Maharashtra-Karnataka tussle over Belagavi ownership. The issue has been rocking the two bordering States for some time and it has taken a violent turn, too. The irony is that both are the BJP ruled States and the Chief Ministers of both the States are stoking the fires over the district. There is a strong Opposition for both the Chief Ministers in the States and they know that it is an issue that would come handy to their rivals in the elections. In the case of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, perhaps, the BJP at the helm at the Centre does not feel the responsibility of settling inter-State disputes of non-BJP ruled States. What would one make out of the simmering differences over sharing of river waters between the two States? Or even over power generation? Why does not the Centre step in to counsel the two States?

When a dispute arose between Assam and Meghalaya, the Centre did not hesitate in playing the intermediary. There is a peculiar penchant underlying the moves of the Centre it seems and everything is seen through the prism of politics. To say that the matter is under litigation is more of a convenient argument. As disputes are allowed to fester without timely interventions, they acquire litigation. The BJP has mastered the art of weakening the Opposition by every which way. Moreover, it does not spare even friendly parties. By no yardstick, one could say the YSRCP is an unfriendly party. For that matter, the TRS, too, was quite pally with the BJP cooperating with it in all Centre's major moves including the enactment of the Farm Bills. It is only of late that the TRS (BRS now anyway) turned a foe when it felt threatened by the BJP turning its attention to the State.

Even in Karnataka or Maharashtra, whatever the BJP leadership is up to is all wrong. One should not stoke such inter-State disputes as they could easily go out of their hands later. It is time that the States learnt the new rules of the game being played by the Centre even if they are ruled by the BJP.