The Chandigarh query

AAfter a political furore, the Central authorities has backed away from introducing a Invoice to incorporate the Union Territory (UT) of Chandigarh underneath the ambit of Article 240 of the Structure. Article 240 empowers the President to make laws for the peace, progress, and good governance of sure UTs that do not need their very own legislatures. The federal government’s try and introduce the Invoice raised the elemental query concerning the Centre’s makes an attempt at overreach within the nation’s federal construction.

In November, the Middle proposed to incorporate Chandigarh underneath the ambit of Article 240. As per a bulletin of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, the federal government supposed to carry the Structure (131st Modification) Invoice, 2025, within the upcoming Winter Session of Parliament, starting December 1, 2025. It needed “to align Chandigarh with different Union Territories with out legislatures — such because the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, Dadra and Nagar Haveli. and Daman and Diu, and Puducherry — when its Legislative Meeting is dissolved or suspended.”

The backlash was swift and intense from Punjab. The federal government then clarified that it could not introduce the Invoice this session. The truth that stakeholders discovered about this transfer by means of parliamentary bulletins quite than any structured dialogue raised the suspicion that the federal government was adopting a unilateral strategy to pay attention authority in New Delhi.

The declare over Chandigarh — the joint capital of Punjab and Haryana — has been a delicate and emotive challenge because the Punjab Reorganization Act, 1966. The Punjab governor serves because the Administrator of Chandigarh. Punjab has been asking for the handing over of Chandigarh, declaring that the Settlement of 1970 acknowledged that the capital undertaking space of ​​Chandigarh “would, as a complete, go to Punjab,” which was a transparent dedication from the Central authorities. In 1985, the Rajiv-Longowal Accord reaffirmed that Chandigarh can be transferred to Punjab.

These unfulfilled commitments proceed to gas resentment and mistrust between Punjab and the Central authorities. Earlier, the Centre’s resolution to restructure Panjab College’s Senate and Syndicate — the college’s governing our bodies — was additionally met with stiff opposition and resigned. Critics and political events had been fast to level out that introducing the change in Chandigarh by means of parliamentary bulletins revealed how little the Middle authorities respects the spirit of session, consensus, and shared governance — the nucleus of federal spirit.

The Ministry of House Affairs later clarified its place, stating that the proposal didn’t search to change Chandigarh’s governance or administrative construction. The Ministry famous that “an appropriate resolution might be taken solely after sufficient consultations with all stakeholders, retaining in thoughts the pursuits of Chandigarh.”

Punjab shares a global border with a hostile Pakistan, and it has been by means of a traumatic section of militancy between the mid-Eighties and early Nineteen Nineties. Its geopolitical actuality can’t be ignored and that is why Punjab must be handled sensitivity. But, it seems that the Central authorities’s latest choices on Chandigarh and Panjab College have been made at administrative or bureaucratic ranges, bypassing political session and disregarding federal rules. This can be a harmful strategy, particularly for a border state with such a violent historical past. Somewhat than resolving the decades-old challenge of Chandigarh’s switch, the Centre’s actions sign an intent to consolidate management as a substitute.

Towards the backdrop of selections surrounding Chandigarh being taken from New Delhi, a number of individuals in political circles, in addition to others, really feel that makes an attempt are being made to negate regional politics, regional pursuits, and regional energy. This negation and this top-down strategy has resulted in reactions from a number of quarters in Punjab.

The Chandigarh query calls for a political answer, not an administrative process. The selections affecting Punjab’s identification and territorial claims should contain real political dialogue and consensus-building, not bureaucratic notifications. For a border State with such a fancy historical past, such strikes, and the perceptions brought on by them, carry critical penalties that reach past mere administrative effectivity.