States do have power to decide how money is spent by them in their state. Taxes collected through gst have a 50:50 ratio in collection by state and center. But nationally it still matters quite a bit who’s governing. India is not like USA where some states can decide to ban abortion and decide on what’s not allowed. Usually whats legal in your state is also legal elsewhere. Some restrictions like beef meat, age of drinking are decided by states.
The center still holds considerable powers as it can decide to implement president’s rule in a state which is not able to form a government. They also control union territories and decide on finance bill, defense pacts, etc. The president and many other positions like income tax dept, crime investigation agencies are just puppets of central govt. They have a record of using them to harass opposition. It’s not just BJP who does that. Almost every party did it in their time. Congress was jailing cartoonists, activists when they were in power too. Basically India is fucked by corrupt politicians. There is no left or right here. Whatever gets you the vote is the king.
My understanding is that India has a fairly weak federal government. The real power rests with the states, and they are ideologically diverse.
States do have power to decide how money is spent by them in their state. Taxes collected through gst have a 50:50 ratio in collection by state and center. But nationally it still matters quite a bit who’s governing. India is not like USA where some states can decide to ban abortion and decide on what’s not allowed. Usually whats legal in your state is also legal elsewhere. Some restrictions like beef meat, age of drinking are decided by states.
The center still holds considerable powers as it can decide to implement president’s rule in a state which is not able to form a government. They also control union territories and decide on finance bill, defense pacts, etc. The president and many other positions like income tax dept, crime investigation agencies are just puppets of central govt. They have a record of using them to harass opposition. It’s not just BJP who does that. Almost every party did it in their time. Congress was jailing cartoonists, activists when they were in power too. Basically India is fucked by corrupt politicians. There is no left or right here. Whatever gets you the vote is the king.