ABSTRACT
Marked by authoritarian centralism, the current phase of Indian federalism is described as a phase of national federalism. Covid-19 further accentuated this tendency. Federalism and states’ autonomy were suspended in favour of a pyramidal model of governance with the prime minister at the apex and ‘incident commanders’ at the bottom. States were not taken on board in shaping of national policy on Covid-19 management and had no choice but to follow central command. The Disaster Management Act 2005 was invoked to declare Covid-19 a national disaster, allowing prime minister to unilaterally govern without any measure of accountability. During the pandemic, the central government effected several changes, particularly in the fields of agriculture and education, which further eroded states’ autonomy. One also finds acrimonious intergovernmental fiscal relations particularly over goods and service taxes (GST) compensation to states, and public health financing. The pandemic further exposed India's cracks in public health governance. Existing constitutional, legal, and institutional mechanisms are insufficient to meet the health disaster. There is a need to opt for a more decentralised framework of public health governance.
