On Monday, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi were able to squeeze out just half an hour from their busy schedules to accompany Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on an aerial survey of some of the flood-affected areas. The Prime Minister was kind enough to announce a grant of Rs 500 crore to the State even though States like Maharashtra, where the damage due to floods was far less than in Assam, have been allocated grants in excess of Rs 1,000 crore. Obviously, there was justification for the Chief Minister of Assam to request the Prime Minister for a flood relief grant of even Rs 2,000 crore considering the extent of damage done to the State by the floods. However, there ought to be a decent limit to what a State like Assam can ask the Centre by way of grants-in-aid considering the reckless way in which such grants have been misspent, misappropriated and even siphoned out over the years. In fact, some of the grants received from the Centre have also had to be returned because they remained unutilized. In other words, every time Assam has to ask the Centre for any kind of additional grants, it has the duty of remembering its track record in utilizing Central grants. To that extent, the status of our State differs from that of other States of the Union. As far as Central grants are concerned, Assam has created an ignoble record that may take years to wipe out. In fact, the situation has got progressively worse from year to year.

It is for this complete lack of fiscal discipline in the State that the Assam Government has, to a large extent, forfeited the right to ask for huge grants. And since the Chief Minister of Assam has submitted a memorandum to the Prime Minister asking for Central assistance the State to the tune of Rs 11,316 crore, there is every reason for the media to take a closer look at the justification provided for seeking such assistance. Obviously, the administration cannot afford to convey the impression that it endorses the kind of fiscal indiscipline, misappropriation and downright loot of development funds. Of the Rs 11,316 crore asked for, Rs 1,100 crore is for rehabilitation of the flood- and erosion-affected families as a part of the total amount of Rs 2,526 crore as immediate support. The memorandum also asks for a medium-term assistance of Rs 8,790 crore, which includes Rs 2,460 crore for strengthening and raising of embankments, Rs 4,630 crore for national highway projects and Rs 700 crore for mitigating flood-related water logging in Guwahati. The people of Assam have seen for years how Central funds meant for flood relief have been misused in the construction and repair of embankments. In fact, unscrupulous contractors who have been building weak and poorly designed embankments year after year on purpose have never been punished for the tragedies that they are responsible for. In fact, it is a matter of abiding astonishment that they keep getting rewarded every year with fresh contracts. The Chief Minister’s demand for the constitution of the Northeast Water Resources Authority makes little sense considering that we already have the Brahmaputra Board. The creation of new organizations to replace old ones that have ceased to function for the greatest interest of the people is a futile exercise since it merely perpetuates the old practice of misusing a system and then giving it a bad name. No one can guarantee that the organization that will replace the Brahmaputra Board will turn out to be any different from the one that it replaces.

There is very much that is wrong about the way we have used grants and development funds of the Centre in the past. What is imperative is that the State should first put its house in order, enforce fiscal discipline in the administration and become worthy of the huge Central grants that are being asked for. It is worthwhile bearing in mind that the sum of Rs 100 crore spent in the name of protecting Majuli over the last eight years should have gone down the drain and failed to produce any results. A State with this kind of a track record forfeits the right to ask for huge Central grants. Obviously not many people will relish the idea of being seen as perpetual beggars and looters of Central funds for personal gains. This is the kind of attitude to grants that ensures that future generations will look upon work as entirely superfluous for a livelihood.

Political parties, including the Congress, do not understand the new electorate, mostly young. It is liberal in outlook and hates to mix religion with politics. This was the ethos which the nation adopted during the independence struggle

The Bhartiya Janata Party seems to have tryst with doom. In the wake of scams and scandals in the Congress-run government, the BJP was gaining ground. Its performance in Parliament was comparatively better and its younger leadership assertive and more meaningful. But once again old RSS men who have been riding the party has brought it back to square one.

First Gujarat Chief Minister Narender Modi joined issued with Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on the concept of secularism and then RSS played the Hindutava card. Both have scotched even the remotest chance of BJP returning to power. A person who has his hands tainted with the blood of Muslims cannot be projected as India’s next Prime Minister.

Nor can the false clothes of culture hide the real face of adherents to Hindu Rashtriya concept. The BJP has, by and large, remained quiet. One if its leaders has spoken out of turn and questioned the very concept of secularism. But he was hushed up quickly. It seems that the party did delude itself with the idea that the Hindu voters were beginning to own the RSS philosophy. The BJP should have learnt the lesson in 2009 when it was all set to win but lost to the Congress.

Political parties, including the Congress, do not understand the new electorate, mostly young. It is liberal in outlook and hates to mix religion with politics. This was the ethos which the nation adopted during the independence struggle and after freedom as a pole star under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Maulana Abul Kalam Azad.

True, regional chauvinism, which is co-terminus with caste and community in certain states, is rearing its ugly head. This is because the Centre looks confused and equivocal when it comes to enunciate policies which demand secular credentials.

Having little feedback from the field, New Delhi continues to monopolise power and fails to appreciate that the decentralization would infuse life among the people in a state. Regional aspirations have got a new edge in the past years and the locals are fired with confidence that they can sort out their problems themselves and find a consensus quicker than the remote New Delhi does.

This is the reason why Trinamul Congress won in West Bengal and Samajwadi Party in UP. The voters found the parties closer to them and more sympathetic to their problems. Even if these regional parties do not give them a better administration the people are not likely to go back to all India parties which they have found failing them again and again. They may try another party within the region because they are getting convinced that all India parties are not an answer to their problems of appalling living conditions.

The idea of India may be pushed further into the background. There may be insurgents and separatists in certain areas to assert the identity of their caste or community, believing that in the affairs of all India politics they may get lost. Much would depend on how New Delhi handles the situation. The Sarkaria Commission on Centre-State relations has become outdated. Had its recommendations beenimplemented when the report came out more than two decades ago, the demand by the states to have more powers might not have arisen. The Centre has to curtail the subjects it has, either voluntarily or through a Constitutional amendment. Apart from Defence, Foreign Affairs, Currency and overall financial planning, New Delhi should not have more subjects. Once it decentralizes  its power it should ensure that the decentralization goes all the way, from the state capital to the district and then to the Panchayat so that people themselves participate in governance.

The two main parties, Congress, the BJP and the Left would have problems. The Left does not seem to bother because it is dictatorial in its working. The CPM ousted a member from the party even though he had resigned after supporting Pranab Mukherjee, the Congress Party’s presidential candidate. Yet both the Congress and the BJP need to handle their members carefully. Even when a state Chief Minister speaks out of turn, he has to be brought around as has been the case with Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan, although he is a creature of Congress President Sonia Gandhi.

The BJP faces a bigger problem because it rules in twice the number of States the Congress does. Leave Modi apart—he is a bull in theChina shop—the Chief Ministers in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Karnataka are too tall to tame. They are leaders of their own communities and command wide influence.

Both parties would have great difficulty for 2014 election, first in choosing the top person and then tackling him or her.  Take for example the BJP, it is already wooing Vasundheraraje Sindhia, former Chief Minister, who thumbed the party and stayed in the wilderness because she was sure that the Central BJP would one day come to her and accept her authoritarian leadership.

Problems of the Congress on this count are negligible.  Sonia Gandhi has all the authority. That Rahul Gandhi, her son, should be nominated as number two has already been done. There is no dissidence and she alone, more so after the departure of Pranab Mukherjee, has the confidence of allies in the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) she chairs.

The BJP would need more and more assistance of RSS to sort out difficulties with the state leaders. Realizing this, RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat has announced that Modi has all the qualifications to become India’s new Prime Minister. However, this has naturally infuriated the BJP’s main ally, Janata Dal (United). Its President Sharad Yadav has said that if Modi is the Prime Minister candidate, the JD (UP) would quit the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

What is wrong with having a Hindutava prime minister’s questions Bhagwat? This question itself shows how RSS lives in a world of it own and does not face the reality of secular India. For the BJP, already a divided house, the confusion is more confounded. It realises that the country can never be ruled through a communal agenda. Even the former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee realized this and always put his liberal foot forward. He refused to oust his Principal Secretary Brijesh Mishra despite the pressure of RSS. But then the BJP’s problem is that it does not have a tall person like Vajpayee to withstand the pressure of RSS.

 Kuldip Nayar