The only result of such a process would be to weaken the Centre. I sometimes wonder how this theory is advocated by the Communists, because communist philosophy believes in democratic centralism. When they rule they believe in centralism. When they do not have power at the Centre they do not want centralism; they want States to be stronger. We have to take a balanced view of the problems of Centre-State relationship. We do see that there is the necessity of a dialogue between the representatives of the States and the Centre about removing regional imbalances. There are problems in Telangana and Purbi-UP. There are problems in Vidarbha and there may be problems in North Bengal, parts of Madhya Pradesh or any other State, Jharkhand and so forth. But to solve these problems possibly the State Governments will have to discuss among themselves. Possibly they will be required to discuss with the Centre also. To facilitate such discussions we can certainly use the informal institutional arrangements that have emerged like Planning Commission, the National Development Council or Finance Commission. If these do not meet the requirements, we can think of some other forum also where we can meet and discuss and solve these problems and this can be continuously done. Nobody refuses to discuss solutions. But is it necessary to redistribute the powers and functions, legislative and executive, which are given under the Constitution? I am convinced that the constructive approach for carrying on the dialogue between the Centre and the State should be there, but there is no necessity of reconsideration of the fundamental distribution of the executive and legislative powers that is provided in the Constitution; I do believe that Centre will have to be strong. If in this process we weaken the Centre, we will not only weaken the unity of this nation, we will weaken the democracy in this nation also.
At the present moment, some people are worried about what the Naxalites are likely to do in the different parts of the country. It is not merely enough that we criticise the Communists and say there is a danger of Naxalites, because such ideology prospers only in the fertile ground of injustice. They want to organise the peasantry; the small peasants. They seek to exploit the grievances of the tenants arising out of the existing inequalities in the landlord-tenant relationship. They want to build up struggles in Bengal, in Bihar, in Andhra and other States also. What is the answer for it? It does not lay in police force; the answer is not suppression. It lies in our going to these people, organising them and in removing inequalities and redressing their grievances. That is the only answer to such problems. They think it their duty to organise struggle, but it will be our duty to remove the causes for struggle. Unless we take this line, no permanent solution is likely to be found. It cannot be treated as merely a law and order problem. I know the responsibility of law and order and if there are any failures, I am prepared to own them up. But while dealing with law and order problems we will have to go into the fundamental causes of the problem also. We will have to find solutions for them. If necessary, police must be used. However, police force cannot provide all solutions.