In the recent elections, the BJP has often used the term ‘double engine government’ in its campaigns for state elections. The BJP first used the expression during the 2014 Haryana and Maharashtra Assembly elections to persuade voters to choose the same party at the Centre as the State for the better development of their states.
But such an idea of ‘double engine government’ makes us ponder about the position of the federal structure of our country. Will it be fruitful for the Federal structure or will it compromise one of the fundamental values of our Constitution?
India’s federal arrangement is considered unitary with federal features, where power is already tilted towards the Centre. Mark Tully argues that India needs to be federal to live with its diversity and prevent the Central government from becoming over-mighty. He suggests devolving responsibility to the lowest level at which it can effectively be exercised and allow states to develop as they choose.
Any kind of attempt of moderate uniformity or oneness won’t do justice with India, which is known as a great diverse country. We already have experienced the Central government’s perpetual effort to undermine state government, especially with having Opposition as state governments, be it through misuse of powers of governors or implementation of schemes.
The BJP’s idea of ‘double engine government’ is more of a flawed way of understanding the working of the federal system. It hides the relevance of productive conflict, which is vital for working of federal structure, and promotes more compliance and smoothness in functioning between the Centre and state.
With the same ruling party in the State and at the Centre, the central wing of the party will be dominant even in local issues of the state. National issues in the Central government elections would tend to dominate the state elections rather than local and regional issues which should dominate them.
Already the central command of the party decides the leadership in the state unit party and declares the chief ministerial candidate. So, to say that ‘double engine’ government won’t harm the federal arrangement is flawed.
The idea of ‘double engine government’ and similar ideas like it, which emphasise oneness rather than plurality, has been mostly the idea of the BJP. This idea suits its ambition of Hindutva politics, which advocates one nation, one culture, one religion, one language. Such kind of policies will lead India to more of a Hindu Rashtra of the BJP’s imagination. And this idea of a double engine government has to do with more administrative convenience, especially according to the Center’s side, not with democratic values of rights and decentralisation.
A recent survey conducted by the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS) argues that a campaign based on the idea of a ‘double engine government’ may be an attractive strategy but one cannot notice any correlation between support for the idea and the results of the voting. Also, its attractiveness is waning in states that had a higher belief earlier. So, the BJP’s emotional appeal doesn’t seem attractive. People want their material needs to be fulfilled while retaining the political culture of their state.
About the author: Chhotelal Kumar has completed their MA in Political Science from Jawaharlal Nehru University.