Union Vs Central Government:
In Tamil Nadu, however, a controversy erupted earlier this month over the new DMK government referring to the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the ‘union government’ (ondriya arasu) instead of ‘central government’ (madhiya arasu).
- In common parlance, the terms “union government” and “central government” are used interchangeably in India.
- However, Article 1(1) of the Constitution of India says “India, that is Bharat, shall be a Union of States.”
- Scholars of India’s constitutional system have described it as being “basically federal, with striking unitary features” (D D Basu).
- While submitting the draft Constitution in 1948, Dr B R Ambedkar, chairman of the drafting committee, had said that the committee had used the world ‘Union’ because
- the Indian federation was not the result of an agreement by the units, and
- the component units had no freedom to secede from the federation.
