Nirmala Sitharaman, Finance Minister is showing some deft footwork in the face of most of the non-BJP ruled States complaining that they have been deprived of funds by the Centre. With the Karnataka CM protesting on 7th Feb at Delhi, she has come out with a statement that in the Interim Budget presented to Parliament recently none of the allocation to States have been reduced! This is neither here nor there since the complaints from the States are for the previous Budget periods going back a few years on revenue sharing like on GST and allocation of costs for approved projects where the share of the Centre has not been forthcoming.
The complaints are just not from one State but ranging across all non-BJP ruled States from Bengal, Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. Thus one would have to believe that the complaints are true. Such step-motherly treatments in a federal democratic set-up are not proper particularly when changes have been brought in to divert almost all revenue like that of GST to the Centre and the States have to look towards Delhi for funds.
Such machinations are nothing but blackmail forcing the people to vote for Double Engine governments where both the State and Centre are ruled by the BJP or NDA affiliated parties. If the problems on revenue sharing like on GST and allocation of costs for approved projects where the share of the Centre has not been forthcoming is common across all States then one wonders why the BJP ruled States have not been raising their voices. Have they gone dumb or fear reprisal if they make themselves heard from a dominant Centre?
