Comments by "M Shastri" (@libshastra) on "Zero-sum game choices for India as China-Russia ‘Anti-Quad’ emerges u0026 Pakistan tags along" video.

India has always been a challenging environment to govern. Though, the scale of crisis faced by the current govt. has been unprecedented. With that said, when Modi isn't busy with elections or politics, he governs. We really need to reform both otherwise a future governance oriented PM will be unable to spend time tackling issues in the country.
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@rodgerbloor6680 I dunno lol. Looking at the political dynasties ruling the States raises serious concerns about any further federalization. Just look at Mumbai and the Aarey colony Depot issue. It was a 50-50 JV between State and Centre and now that project is in limbo thanks to a local satraps ego. Basically, the Centre under this government has proved that it can govern. The jury is still out for State Governments. Any additional powers will most likely be abused against the locals is the State. We are well aware about the abuse of UAPA by the Centre but States are way worse when it comes to UAPA. For every abuse of power the Centre engages in, States are 2x-3x times likely to engage in abuse of power. Federalization is a beautiful word and a lovely concept on paper but reality suggests otherwise.
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@Dhruv_Jain you are not wrong in that stance. I agree with you but however to me it seems like the Centre is compensating for the State's dysfunction.
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@MR-sf2nk again this comes back to same argument. Our State governments are worse than the Centre. Let's consider curriculum, a average student who studied under the State syllabus is at a significant disadvantage compared to an average student who studied in a CBSE or ICSE board. In my opinion, the disadvantage shouldn't be this stark. Also when was the last time State education boards revised their syllabus? They introduced IT but the rest of the curriculum has pretty much been unchanged.
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Russia will not abandon India. It would go against Primkov doctrine which has been primary foreign policy doctrine of Russia since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Russia is hedging it's bet by being bonhomie with China against US and hedging bets by being a primary arms supplier (just look at the Indo Russian JV) to India against China. Russia sees India as one of the poles of power. Russia is engaging in tactical posturing but strategically it still views China with healthy skepticism. This is exactly why there are CSTO (primarily Russian) were deployed in Kazakhstan, it was there to keep the Chinese out after China offered assistance. Sooner or later, China will stab Russia in the back. BTW, search for "Multipolar World - Russia's Primakov Doctrine in the Middle East" for a more detailed analysis on the doctrine.
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@Dhruv_Jain read my other comments in the same thread.
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@badbad-cat it is but we need more checks and balances before we expand on federalism. Right now your state politician has enormous amount of unchecked policing resources under their thumb to squash any form dissent. That's one aspect. The other aspect is State governments haven't really proved that they have the capacity to govern or capacity for reforms (TN is a little promising but again it's not enough). So let's say we give States more authority today, what do you think would happen? I can definitely gaurantee, in Maharashtra I'd be arrested for calling Uddhav Thackeray a penguin. I would likely have BMC sent to demo my house for asking for development. Etc. They have done this without additional powers. Like I said, it's a nice word but reality says otherwise and hold your horses. We know the answer is federalism but the real question is how do get there and that's what we should be talking about. Most of the folks who advocate for federalism don't realize that they giving a one word answer to a question that needs pages deriving at an answer.
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