POLITICS-INDIA: Southern State Defies Central Authority

By Ranjit Devraj Reprint | | Print |

Ranjit Devraj

NEW DELHI, Jul 2 2001 (IPS) - The dramatic weekend arrests of two key members of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s cabinet in southern Tamil Nadu state has sparked off a major constitutional crisis impinging on centre-state relations in India’s federal polity.

Commerce minister Murasoli Maran and Environment and Forests Minister T.R. Baalu were taken into custody for trying to prevent police from arresting the leader of their DMK party and former Tamil Nadu chief minister Muthuvel Karunanidhi on corruption charges in the wee hours of Saturday at his Chennai city home.

The Vajpayee cabinet was to meet later on Monday to decide on whether to invoke constitutional provisions, which give the centre overriding powers over the states, to secure the release of Maran and Baalu.

Alternately, the cabinet can decide to impose direct central rule over Tamil Nadu on the grounds of a breakdown in the constitutional machinery – although such a move is sure to be resisted by the Congress and other opposition parties.

The DMK party lost state assembly elections in May to its arch rival, the AIADMK, whose charismatic leader, Jayaraman Jaylalitha, was invited to form the government by state governor Fatima Beevi, in spite of her recent conviction in a corruption case.

A former film star, Jayalalitha, dubbed by the tabloid press as the ‘Imelda Marcos of India’ for the sizeable collection of footwear she owns, has blamed her conviction on charges brought up against her by Karunanidhi when he was in power.

She is said to have taken an oath of vengeance against Karunanidhi and promised her supporters that she would make her political rival eat from the same plate she was served food when she was arrested on corruption charges.

Barred from contesting the state assembly elections because of the conviction, Jayalalitha has six months in which to get herself elected in order to continue as chief minister. And that would depend on the fate of an appeal she has made in court.

On Sunday, Beevi resigned as governor even as Vajpayee’s cabinet sought her recall for alleged failure to uphold the Constitution and to independently report to the federal government on the arrest of the cabinet ministers.

The move to recall Beevi drew a howl of protests from the Congress party and other political groups opposed to Vajpayee’s National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government at the centre

In a statement, the Congress party, which is an ally of Jayallaitha’s AIADMK, condemned the cabinet decision to recall Beevi as “vindictive, hasty, ill-considered and motivated”.

Congress party spokesperson Ambika Soni has accused the Vajpayee government of trying to “get even with her (Beevi) for administering the oath of office to Ms Jayalalitha against the wishes of the home minister (Lal Krishna Advani)”.

The Left Front parties described the move to recall the Tamil Nadu governor as a “totally unwarranted and an undemocratic step” and said Beevi had “acted and behaved as per Constitutional norms”.

However, most parties were unanimous that the arrests — televised over several channels — were brutally carried out with little regard to the fact Karunanidhi had served four terms as Tamil Nadu chief minister and that Maran and Baalu were senior cabinet ministers.

Said Pranab Mukherjee, one of the Congress party’s senior leaders: “We want that the law should take its own course but at the same time criticise the manner in which the veteran leader and some of his colleagues were treated during the arrest.”

But the Congress party, which has a majority in the Rajya Sabha, or upper house of Parliament, is sure to use it to oppose any move to impose President’s rule in Tamil Nadu.

The NDA was to meet separately on Monday evening to consider the report of a three-man team which went to Chennai during the weekend to make an assessment of the situation in Tamil Nadu and report to Vajpayee.

Former defence minister George Fernandes who led the team, has already said he personally favoured central intervention because there was a “constitutional crisis” in the state.

“If democratic norms are to be preserved the Congress could change its stand and the opposition parties extend support for President’s rule,” said Jana Krishanmurthi, spokesman for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which leads the NDA.

According to Krishanmurthi, the treatment meted out to Karunanidhi clearly violated human rights while the arrest of the two cabinet ministers breached constitutional norms and traditions.

Independent public figures like former Supreme Court judge, V.R. Krishna Iyer have condemned the arrests and urged the Union Cabinet to get its minister freed quickly and order an inquiry into “these draconian doings”.

“The implications of the Chennai episode, including the reckless arrest of central ministers, are so grave that unless immediate steps against the offending group are taken, one day any State Chief Minister with political limpets and police bullies, may perpetrate a similar crime on the Prime Minister himself,” Iyer said.