Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin announced the constitution of a panel on state autonomy that will be headed by a retired Supreme Court judge, as he made a strong pitch for empowering states, alleging that their rights were gradually being snatched by the central government.
According to PTI, The establishment of the high-level panel, marking half-a-century of DMK government’s ‘historic’ state autonomy resolution moved in the Tamil Nadu Assembly by then chief minister M Karunanidhi, was aimed at re-asserting the principles of state autonomy in today’s context, he said while making a statement in the Tamil Nadu assembly.
The move was meant to protect the ‘legitimate rights’ of states and to improve relations between the Union and the state governments, he claimed in the assembly.
He utilised the occasion to flay the present All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leadership, after the party MLAs staged a walkout over a different issue.
Despite their differences with the DMK, AIADMK stalwarts and late chief ministers M G Ramachandran and J Jayalalithaa never compromised on state rights. “But now they (AIADMK) say that principles and alliance are different…the question is what is their stand,” Stalin asked, apparently referring to the opposition party stitching up an alliance with the BJP recently.
He stressed that there was a need to strengthen cooperative federalism, laws, and policies related to Centre-state ties by reviewing the provisions of the Constitution when the states’ rights were under siege.
He said B R Ambedkar unequivocally stated that “both the Union and the States are created by the Constitution…the one is not subordinate to the other in its own field and the authority of one is co-ordinate with that of the other.�
“Yet, the steady encroachment of the Union into the rightful domains of the States has disrupted the delicate constitutional balance…a strong Union is not built by weakening States. It is built by empowering them,” Stalin emphasised.
The panel will have former bureaucrat, Ashok Vardhan Shetty and former vice-chairman of the State Planning Commission M Naganathan as its members.
“The committee will study, as per the law, to transfer those subjects that went from the State List to the Concurrent List,” the Chief Minister said and pointed out that the National Eligibility-cum- Entrance Test (NEET) was out of the purview of states.
The state has been demanding exemption from the NEET ambit. A number of medical aspirants have died by suicide over the years, either over unable to clear the entrance test or over apprehensions of cracking it.
“We are not stressing for devolution of power and funds merely considering Tamil Nadu’s welfare but are keeping in mind the interests of the people of the vast expanse of the country stretching from Gujarat to the northeastern parts; from Kashmir to Kerala,” Stalin said.
“Tamil Nadu’s will be the first voice vis-a-vis discussions on state autonomy,” he added.
The motive behind setting up the said panel is to protect the rights of all Indian states that work on the basis of “unity in diversity,” Stalin added.
“While Tamils world over showed their opposition when cultural identities like Eruthazhvudal (similar to jallikattu) were attempted to be destroyed, our request is that the cultural ethos of the northeastern states like Manipur and Nagaland should also be given due respect,” he said.
“It is a fact that while we take all steps to protect our Mother Tamil, we are equally concerned about languages in other parts of India losing their nature,” the CM said.
