GST restructuring will sound death knell to federalism: Vice-President candidate Sudershan Reddy
B. Sudershan Reddy, the Opposition’s Vice-Presidential candidate, said that if the attempt to restructure the GST and formulate appropriate policies regarding the allocation of financial resources to States succeeded, it would sound the death knell for the very idea of federalism.
“The States would be reduced to the level of municipalities, and made to depend on handouts from whoever is in power. It is a matter of serious concern for all of us. Unless we all think seriously about it, and collectively evolve an appropriate strategy and policy to face the impending difficulty, not only the idea of federalism, but the Constitution itself would be in danger,” he said at a meeting organised by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin and alliance partners of the DMK at Chennai on August 24, 2025 (Sunday).
Recalling the DMK’s plea to the Sarkaria Commission to abolish the post of the Governor, Mr. Reddy said the party had been a visionary, and had anticipated the impending crisis it is facing even today.
Without naming the BJP, Mr. Reddy alleged that only those who do not understand the idea of India and the Constitution keep on repeating the phrase ‘one nation’. “It is as if others are disputing that proposition. Of course, ours is one nation. But what is India, that is Bharat? It is a union of States. What is a union without the States? What is a nation without its States? The importance of the State is in the very first words of the Constitution,” he said.
Mr. Stalin, who called Mr. Reddy a champion of federalism, said he faced daily challenges and dangers posed by forces and vested interests that seek to undermine the idea of federalism.
Responding to the opinion that he had no place in the political arena, since he had not been involved in politics during his previous career as a lawyer and judge, Mr. Reddy said those who raised the question had forgotten that the Constitution itself was a political document.
