India, Dec. 28 -- The Punjab cabinet's move to recommend a one-day special session of the Vidhan Sabha on December 30 to oppose the Centre's new rural employment law -VB-G RAM G (Viksit Bharat-Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission Gramin) - is politically predictable. The law replaces the guarantee-based architecture of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, and the state's protest carries obvious symbolic weight. But symbolism is not governance. Once Parliament has altered the national framework, the harder and more consequential question is what room, if any, states retain to shape outcomes on the ground.

A resolution cannot repeal a central statute. But it need not be meaningless. States can still shape outcom...