Relationship between centre and the West Bengal government has been strained, especially after May 02,2021. Additionally, the centre has been habitually dillydallying with payment of GST-dues to states ruled by non-BJP parties. This fractured centre-state connection has spilled over into the GST Council and has ended up raising disturbing questions about Digital India project. In this context, ideas like cooperative federalism have been dunked into the drains.

Recently, there was a crucial meeting that discussed the contentious issue of slashing GST rates on Covid-related products. On Saturday, West Bengal finance minister Amit Mitra castigated Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman as his voice was allegedly muzzled in that meeting, with his voice getting muted.

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The meeting that slashed the tax on the Covid-19 drug remdesivir, black fungus medicine amphotericin B and the anti-coagulant heparin to 5 percent from the earlier 12 percent was chaotic to say the least. West Bengal finance minister Amit Mitra had suggested bringing down the tax rate at vaccines from 5% to zero, which was ignored by central finance minister.

West Bengal FinMin wrote a letter to Sitharaman after the meeting. In that letter, a seething Mitra alleged that the Centre had delivered a “major blow to the spirit of cooperative federalism” by refusing to let him voice his views.

“You gave the floor to the minister from Uttar Pradesh who sought deletion of some of my comments by name and shockingly you agreed,” Mitra said in his letter. He further mentioned, “This and other instances in today’s GST Council meeting have dealt a major blow to the spirit of cooperative federalism undermining the very ethos of the GST Council.”

Amit Mitra later in the evening said, “What happened today is most shocking. I raised my hand; I screamed to register an official dissent to the decisions taken at the end of the deliberation. But I was not allowed to speak. Maybe they had muted me.”

Minister of state for finance Anurag Thakur claimed that Mitra’s video connection was not stable and he could not be heard.

Thakur’s comment on the state of Amit Mitra’s connectivity cast a shadow on central government’s Digital India campaign. It also underscored its laughable failure to create high-speed Internet and data networks even after 6 years of its launch. The digital India was supposed to provide smooth connectivity that can seamlessly patch people who have become increasingly dependent on video-based communications.

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Trouble apparently erupted when West Bengal FinMin tried to say that the central government had completely mismanaged the pandemic and bungled on vaccination policy.

Amit Mitra said, “I pointed out that the majority of the deaths took place January 16 onwards and at least 40 per cent of those could have been averted if we had an effective vaccine policy and we would not have to see bodies floating in the river.”

That comment proved a red rag for Uttar Pradesh government under Adityanath. UP government has been facing a lot of flak after bodies were buried on the banks of the Ganga, corpses were found floating down the river, & dogs were seen nibbling away the bodies.

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Uttar Pradesh finance minister Suresh Khanna leapt to his state’s defence.  In the meeting, he demanded that Amit Mitra’s comments be struck off. Union FinMin agreed and closed the meeting in a hurry, clearly in an attempt to save BJP’s face. Amit Mitra was livid at the manner he had been cut short during the meeting and his comments were ignored. He said, “I should have been allowed to respond since the UP minister referred to my comments. But she (Sitharaman) did not do so and the meeting was closed. This has never happened before. This is a blow to the principle of cooperative federalism.”

The meeting showed that even GST council meeting on a nationally crucial issue of vaccination is not free from party-based political friction dealing a blow to federalism. Centre led by BJP is visibly unable to digest the divergent opinions given by a state FinMin from a party which gave it a humiliating defeat in the assembly election. If this incident is not silencing of opinion of state government ruled by a different party, then this is a clear failure of digital India.

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After seven years of loud-mouthing about digital India, the centre is unable to provide for stable internet connection for videoconferencing. A country where vaccination was once free is now contemplating the tax rate to be charged on vaccine shots. The country which was supposed to be one of the largest manufacturers of vaccines is now seeking overseas aid and vaccine-supply from developed countries. Visibly, a fracas has been made out of federalism, as evinced in the treatment of the comment of Amit Mitra.