I was amazed to read news reports that the government had issued show cause notices to Gram Sarpanchs’ (in some instances suspending them!) holding them accountable for the slow pace of implementation of drought relief works through the food for work (FFW) scheme. Under this scheme the village governments are supposed to provide daily employment to the landless labour and pay them wages in the form of grain (rice) and utilize them for any development activity in the village. The state government is supplying the food stocks with liberal assistance from the union government.

align="left">We have just completed 55 years as a Republic, and this is a good opportunity to introspect.  With great hope and expectation, the members of the Constituent Assembly adopted the Constitution on November 26, 1949, and the new Republic came into existence on 26 January, 1950.  By any standard it was an extraordinary occasion.

We have just completed 55 years as a Republic, and this is a good opportunity to introspect.  With great hope and expectation, the members of the Constituent Assembly adopted the Constitution on November 26, 1949, and the new Republic came into existence on 26 January, 1950.  By any standard it was an extraordinary occasion.

dir="ltr">Harold McMillan famously said that one week was a long time in politics. NDA ignored that maxim in the exuberence which followed the victory of BJP in MP, Rajasthan and Chattisgarh in December. The stunning verdict in Lok Sabha polls brings us back to the realities of our politics.

The recent spurt in terrorist violence and the unresolved Cauvery river water dispute brought to the fore once again the imbalanced nature of our federalism. For long scholars have argued with reason that our Constitution is quasi-federal in nature, and in times of emergency (under Article 352) and imposition of president’s rule under Article 356, it becomes completely unitary. These apart, the states in India are completely at the mercy of the Union for their very existence.