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Journalism of Courage
The confrontation between the Tamil Nadu government and the Raj Bhavan in Chennai looks set for another sharp escalation after Governor R N Ravi accused the DMK administration of intimidating the Vice-Chancellors (V-Cs) of state universities to stop them from attending his annual conference of V-Cs. For the DMK’s rivals AIADMK and BJP, this latest chapter in the Ravi-DMK saga will bring its own share of political complexities.
Only a fraction of the state’s university leadership turned up at the conference in Ooty on Friday, leaving the Raj Bhavan red-faced. Subsequently, the Governor alleged that the M K Stalin-led government used the state police’s special branch to intimidate the V-Cs into not turning up, Arun Janardhanan reported.
“One of our V-Cs is in the police station today. One V-C reached Ooty, but something unprecedented happened — there were midnight knocks at the doors, where secret police, the special branch of the state, went and told them that if they participated in the event, they would not be able to go home,” Ravi said.
These allegations invited an immediate response from the DMK’s Rajya Sabha MP, P Wilson, who said such “false statements that tend to excite subversive activities against the government of Tamil Nadu constitute a serious crime”. Expect more backlash from Tamil Nadu’s ruling party on Saturday.
Ravi’s decision to organise the meeting and go on the offensive against the government comes weeks after the Supreme Court ruled that Governors cannot indefinitely sit on Bills. The court’s significant ruling on the powers of a Governor came on April 8 when it set aside Ravi’s decision to withhold assent to 10 pending Bills, terming it illegal and erroneous in law. For the first time, it also prescribed that the President should take a decision on Bills reserved for consideration by a Governor within three months of the date on which such reference is received.
The ruling came as a shot in the arm for the DMK, which has, since then, set up a committee to review and recommend measures to safeguard the rights of states and rebalance the federal structure. With this, the Stalin-led party has attempted to turn federalism into an electoral issue ahead of the Tamil Nadu Assembly polls next year.
This will be something that the AIADMK, the principal Opposition party in the state that is back in the BJP camp, will be mindful of, as it may be a tricky political terrain to navigate. That’s because, in the past, the AIADMK’s leaders have shared similar positions on the state’s fiscal and administrative independence and concerns about Central overreach. In a nutshell, the AIADMK cannot afford to hand over to the DMK the mantle of crusader for the state’s autonomy.
While it will be clear what position the AIADMK takes on the latest controversy, Ravi’s comments are unlikely to go down well in the party as they will invariably be viewed as fuel for DMK’s federalism push. As an AIADMK leader put it to Arun recently, “Uniting all against the DMK is the key strategy. But R N Ravi tests the entire plot.” An RSS leader in the state pointed out that every move that “smells of Delhi overruling Tamil Nadu will erode the NDA’s credibility”.
Not just the AIADMK, there is likely to be some unease in the BJP too. The Supreme Court ruling first induced this sense of disquiet in the BJP’s top leadership, Liz Mathew reported last week, with some party leaders questioning Ravi’s actions that precipitated the face-off with the judiciary.
How the DMK moves on this issue and how the AIADMK-BJP respond are likely to be one of the key political stories of the day.
