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by lagolinguini 1124 days ago
India is very much like Turkey, though perhaps no where as close to China or Russia.

State governments in India are not powerful, and they never have been! The constitution of India grants much more power to the Central Government than it does to the State Governments. The BJP government has pushed the boundary of federalism again and again. Here are some concrete examples:

1. Denial of statehood to Jammu and Kashmir.

2. Using the Centre-appointed governor to take down the Govt. of Maharashtra.

3. Constant pushback on policies and appointments made by the Govt. of Delhi.

1 comments

>> State governments in India are not powerful, and they never have been!

Time to time center was able to disrupt state governments but the states have enormous latitude on taxation, duties and policies. For much of India's existence each state is its own parallel system. The whole GST is trying to harmonize the taxing in India across States and that came what 75 years after Independence.