In a sharp attack on the Union government, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) president Asaduddin Owaisi on Saturday, September 17, said cooperative federalism and competitive federalism did not exist, and that federalism was only federalism.

The four-time Member of Parliament from Hyderabad was speaking at the first edition of the Dakshin Dialogues in Hyderabad.

“I don’t know what our prime minister means when he says those terms,” said Owaisi, adding that the southern states must build a political consensus on federalism while opposing the Union government's definition of it.

Taking a swipe at the BJP, he said that federalism would be harmed if the BJP came to power in more states.

Owaisi added that in the 21st century, the Union government should allow the decentralisation of power.

“We are not living in the 1950s, when the Central government would have all the power. All the states must assert their demands to the Union government,” he said.

Owaisi also attacked the BJP-led Union government’s strategy during the Covid-19 pandemic.

“If a bureaucrat sitting in Delhi wants to impose a lockdown in a State he or she has never visited, that is not the way. What do people living in Delhi know about here? Our supreme leader does not believe in diversity,” said Owaisi, in a veiled dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

About the Union government’s discrimination with states, he said, “The Central government gives no share in cess to the states. Rs 50,000 crore have been denied to them.”

This article originally appeared on South First, as part of its Dakshin Dialogues series. It has been republished with permission.

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