NEW DELHI/MADRAS, 2 July — The governor of the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu resigned yesterday, hours after the Union Cabinet sought her recall over an alleged failure to uphold the constitution in the wake of the arrest of a key government ally. “The governor, Justice M. Fathima Beevi, has in her letter to the president this evening tendered her resignation,” an official told reporters in Madras.
Earlier in New Delhi, the central Cabinet decided to recall the governor in the latest twist to a political drama that began with the arrest on Saturday of Muthuvel Karunanidhi and his DMK party leaders.
“The Cabinet was of the opinion that the governor of Tamil Nadu failed to discharge her obligations to safeguard the constitution,” Justice Minister Arun Jaitley told reporters in New Delhi after a special meeting chaired by the prime minister. Jaitley said Beevi’s report on the state’s situation was biased.
The governor is expected to be impartial in any dispute between the federal government and a state, and to tell the government about any breakdown of constitutional order. Karunanidhi is the state’s former chief minister and head of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, a key component of the country’s ruling National Democratic Alliance. He was arrested on the orders of Tamil Nadu’s new Chief Minister Jayaram Jayalalitha, his political rival.
Police also arrested two central ministers and senior DMK leaders, Murasoli Maran and T.R. Baalu, for “criminal intimidation” of police officers while trying to prevent Karunanidhi’s arrest. The arrests, and the way police were shown on television dragging the 78-year-old Karunanidhi into a van, drew nationwide condemnation.
Karunanidhi and his son M.K. Stalin, mayor of the state’s capital city Madras, were charged with corruption linked to the contracts for 10 highway flyovers awarded while he was the state’s chief minister. Karunanidhi’s arrest is widely seen as a move by Jayalalitha to settle old scores. She blames his government for corruption charges being laid against her.
Jayalalitha was invited by Beevi to form the state government in May despite being barred from contesting the elections because of her conviction in a graft case. Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee has sent a team of senior Interior Ministry officials to probe the arrests and the way police handled them.
