{"id":114670,"date":"2021-06-25T10:42:49","date_gmt":"2021-06-25T05:12:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=114670"},"modified":"2021-06-25T10:42:49","modified_gmt":"2021-06-25T05:12:49","slug":"the-union-government-has-a-unifying-effect","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/the-union-government-has-a-unifying-effect\/","title":{"rendered":"The Union Government has a unifying effect"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h5><b>Synopsis<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:<\/span><\/h5>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The term \u2018Centre\u2019 is absent in the Constitution as the Constituent Assembly did not want to centralise power. In this regard, the Tamil Nadu government has decided to replace the term \u2018Central Government\u2019 with \u2018Union Government\u2019 for all official communications.<\/span><\/p>\n<h5><b>Background<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:<\/span><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Tamil Nadu government has decided to shun the usage of the term \u2018Central government\u2019 in its official communications and replace it with \u2018Union government\u2019.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is a <\/span><b>major step towards regaining the consciousness<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of our Constitution as stated in <\/span><b>Article 1.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> The article states that India, that is Bharat, shall be a Union of States.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The term \u2018Centre\u2019 or \u2018Central Government\u2019 is absent from 395 articles and 12 schedules of the constitution. But still, the courts, the media and even the States refer to the Union government as the \u2018Centre\u2019.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5><b>How are courts and media able to use the term central government?<\/b><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Even though we have no reference to the \u2018Central government\u2019 in the Constitution, <strong>the General Clauses Act, 1897<\/strong> gives a definition for it.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The \u2018Central government\u2019 for all practical purposes is the President after the commencement of the Constitution.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5><b>What was the intent of our constitutional makers?<\/b><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul style=\"list-style-type: disc;\">\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Initially, the objective resolution wanted to create India as a Union of territories willing to join the \u201cIndependent Sovereign Republic\u201d.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Many members were of the opinion that the principles of the British Cabinet Mission Plan (1946) be adopted. It contemplated a Central government with very limited powers whereas the provinces had substantial autonomy.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Partition and the violence of 1947 in Kashmir forced the Constituent Assembly to revise its approach and resolve it in favour of a strong Centre. The possibility of the secession of states from the Union weighed on the minds of the drafters of the Constitution and ensured that the Indian Union was \u201cindestructible\u201d.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hence the term &#8220;<\/span><b>union of states&#8221; was chosen<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. The members wanted to make it clear that though India was to be a federation, it was not the result of an agreement and that therefore, no State has the right to secede from it.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Nonetheless, the term union instead of the federation also got some criticism from members like Hasrat Mohani on the following grounds:<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The usage of the words \u2018Union of States\u2019 would obscure the word \u2018Republic\u2019<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It might create India into a despotic union like Germany at the time of Adolf Hitler<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It would undermine federalism and bring all the units, the provinces and the groups of States under the thumb of the Centre.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5><b>Why was the term \u2018Centre\u2019 or Central Government\u2019 avoided?<\/b><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul style=\"list-style-type: disc;\">\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The members of the Constituent Assembly intended to <\/span><b>keep away the tendency of centralising of powers in one unit.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The term \u2018Union government\u2019 or the \u2018Government of India\u2019 has a unifying effect as the message sought to be given is that the government is of all.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Both the Union and the States are created by the Constitution, both derive their respective authority from the Constitution. None is subordinate to the other in its own field.<\/span>\n<ul style=\"list-style-type: square;\">\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For instance, the judiciary is designed in the Constitution to ensure that the Supreme Court has no superintendence over the High Courts.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Though the Supreme Court has appellate jurisdiction over High Courts and other lower courts, they are not declared to be subordinate to it.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Source<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: <a href=\"https:\/\/epaper.thehindu.com\/Home\/ShareArticle?OrgId=GNS8MTLGQ.1&amp;imageview=0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Hindu<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Synopsis: The term \u2018Centre\u2019 is absent in the Constitution as the Constituent Assembly did not want to centralise power. In this regard, the Tamil Nadu government has decided to replace the term \u2018Central Government\u2019 with \u2018Union Government\u2019 for all official communications. Background: The Tamil Nadu government has decided to shun the usage of the term&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/the-union-government-has-a-unifying-effect\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">The Union Government has a unifying effect<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,8043,9],"tags":[8190,8188,8189,8191],"class_list":["post-114670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-current-affairs-cat","category-public","tag-article-1","tag-central-government","tag-union-government","tag-union-of-states","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704779864},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114670","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114670"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114670\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}