Double standards

The Supreme Court has come down heavily on the Centre and the Nagaland Government over their failure to implement the constitutional provision of one-third reservation for women in civic body elections in the northeastern state. With the BJP being part of Nagaland’s ruling dispensation, the court has scathingly remarked: ‘It is your government. You cannot get away by saying that there is some other in the state.’ The ‘double engine’ government finds itself on a sticky wicket as the reservation of 33 per cent seats for women in urban local bodies is mandated by the 74th Amendment to the Constitution.

The court has not confined its observations to Nagaland while rapping the Centre: ‘You will take an extreme stand against state governments which may not be amenable to you. Your own state government is violating the constitutional scheme and you don’t want to do anything.’ This implies that the Centre has one yardstick for BJP-ruled states and another for those where Opposition parties are in power. Amid the nationwide outrage over the Manipur video clip, the BJP has been quick to rake up crimes against women in the Congress-ruled Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh and Trinamool Congress-governed West Bengal. The rival parties are no stranger to hypocrisy, but the onus is largely on the Centre to set an example by rising above partisanship and fostering cooperative federalism.

The Central Government’s double standards are also exemplified by the overzealousness of investigating agencies in conducting raids and searches in Opposition-ruled states. Rooting out corruption should be a pan-India mission, not a selective exercise reeking of political vendetta. The sorry state of affairs is summed up by the Centre’s insistence on another extension for the Enforcement Directorate chief even after the apex court recently held his back-to-back extensions illegal and invalid. It’s up to the Centre to pay heed to the SC’s remarks and see the error of its ways.