NEW DELHI/MADRAS, 3 July — The ruling coalition was yesterday firmly set on a collision course with the opposition over its move to sack Tamil Nadu Governor Fathima Beevi who quickly resigned.
The resignation late Sunday — within two hours after President K.R. Narayanan accepted a Union Cabinet decision to sack her — immediately pitted the main opposition Congress party against the multiparty government. However, Narayanan yesterday accepted Beevi’s resignation.
Meanwhile, acts of sporadic violence marked a dawn-to-dusk strike yesterday in Madras, the capital city of the southern state of Tamil Nadu, to protest the arrest Saturday of former Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi, his two sons and two Union ministers.
“Barring a few minor incidents of stone-throwing state transport buses, no violence has been reported in the state, which is by and large peaceful,” said Tamil Nadu police Director General A. Ravindranath. The strike in Madras was called by the coalition ruling at the center. The DMK is part of Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s coalition government.
But yesterday’s strike had only a partial impact in Madras, where most offices, schools and banks remained open and public transport continued to function. It was the latest in a series of dramatic developments that unfolded in the southern state.
The Congress spokesman, S. Jaipal Reddy, while reacting on Beevi’s forced removal said, “The move against the governor is arbitrary. Now there is no question of our supporting any government action against (Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayaram) Jayalalitha.” Reddy said New Delhi had acted in a “high-handed” manner because Beevi, a center’s appointee, was in no way to blame for the arrests of Karunanidhi and his sons, including Madras Mayor M.K. Stalin, on corruption charges.
Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s ruling coalition ranged itself against the governor, a former Supreme Court judge, for virtually justifying the arrests of the former chief minister and Union ministers Murasoli Maran and T.R. Baalu.
The Congress, which had earlier flayed the manner in which Karunanidhi was roughed up and arrested, came out strongly in favor of Jayalalitha, with whom it fought the May assembly polls in Tamil Nadu. Two other allies of Jayalalitha, the Communist Party of India (CPI) and the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM), also threatened to counter any move to dismiss her government.
What has angered Delhi is the roughing up of Karunanidhi, an ally of Vajpayee, and the arrests of its two ministers for allegedly obstructing the police.
On Sunday, Vajpayee confidant George Fernandes flew to Madras, met Karunanidhi in prison and said he would recommend to Vajpayee to take “harsh” action against Jayalalitha. “I don’t see any middle path in this situation.” Fernandes refused to meet Jayalalitha. Vajpayee’s Hindu extremist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) agreed the opposition would now be on the warpath.
Senior BJP leader J.P. Mathur said, “We are definitely on a collision course. Because the Congress and leftist parties will support Jayalalitha.”
Political analyst G.V.L. Narasimha Rao said though the ruling coalition was insisting strong action against the state government, New Delhi’s more pressing needs are the release of its two ministers. Their detention is highly embarrassing.”
Even though Beevi is no more an obstacle for the center, release of Union ministers will not be an easy task. With their being in judicial custody, the decision to release them on bail can be taken only by courts.
