Chennai: If the most striking feature in the evolution of Indian democracy is the increasing assertion of state autonomy, Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa has emerged as its credible and shrill voice. Although the latest issue that pitted her and other non-Congress chief ministers against the centre is terror, or rather the National Centre for Counter Terrorism (NCTC), she is as much a hardliner on the issue as home minister P Chidambaram is. But not at the cost of her power and privileges. In other words, she is tough on terror, but tougher on state autonomy. [caption id=“attachment_224249” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Jaya has been among the earliest to assert state autonomy.”]  [/caption] Jaya has been among the earliest to assert state autonomy and the principle of Indian federalism. Although the DMK and its leaders, particularly Karunanidhi and his nephew - the late industries minister Murasoli Maran - spoke the word at the drop of a hat, it’s been mostly Jaya who matched her words with action or at least appropriate posturing, right from her first tenure. Other home-grown parties in Tamil Nadu, some with dubious links, continue to speak a meaningless autonomy language that still smacked of secessionist sentiments of the 1960s. Jaya opposed every bill, proposal or policy statement that seemed to overlap or usurp the policies or powers of the state(s). The Goods and Services Tax (GST), planning commission’s approach paper on poverty, FDI in retail, Prevention of Communal and Targetted Violence (PCTC) Bill, Right to Food Act, the centre’s stand on Tamil Nadu fishermen and Sri Lanka, Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Programme, common entrance test for professional courses…the list is rather long. She has been right within the framework of Indian federal system. When there is a state government with clearly demarcated areas of jurisdiction, why should the centre have dime a dozen bills on almost everything? The states of the silken south and the west haven’t become examples of economic growth, human development and fight against terror, by inflexible central laws, but by an autonomous polity and efficient governance. (Of course, this is not to whitewash serious human rights offences some have committed.) Embodying this sentiment, Jaya didn’t heckle without reason, but argued her case with clarity whether it is at the National Development Council (NDC) or the National Integration Council (NIC). In her true trademark style, now emulated also by Mayawati, she doesn’t waste time attending Delhi meetings or take unnecessary calls from the centre. It is mostly a proxy who reads out her statements or her written communications that make her point. Take for example the most recent NCTC controversy. It was her letter to the Prime Minister that spoke for the states. She said it smacked of a tendency to abrogate power with no attendant responsibility. The power of the IB officials in the proposed NCTC to arrest and seize is “highly objectionable and can be misused.” “Setting up of inter-state intelligence teams is tantamount to usurping legitimate rights of the states”. In the same breath, she also expressed strong commitment to supporting measures and efforts to strengthen the unity and integrity of the country. Her address to the NDC late last year, read out by her finance minister O Panneerselvam, was another example of her staunch opposition of the centre’s imperial ways. She said NDC was a forum to consult the states as equal partners, but such meetings were “ritualistic and exercise in futility.” In the same statement, she had made the famous catchphrase that the centre was trying to reduce the states to “glorified municipal corporations.” Wondering if the the centre considered states as partners at all, when it had to treat them as equal partners, she said it made attempts to “weaken the states with too much interference,” It was “completely out of sync with ground realities and is far removed from the man on the street.” She definitely had a point that synchronised well with other chief ministers and advocates of federalism. On PCTC, she said it was a “blatant attempt to totally bypass the state governments and concentrate all powers in the central government.” On the GST, she said “in its present form, the proposed tax is an assault on the fiscal autonomy of the states, which is difficult to accept.” On the common entrance examination for professional courses she said centre didn’t care for local conditions and the views of the state governments. [fpgallery id=374] She was also right that when it came to the state’s genuine issues, the centre looked the other way. She cited the frequent attacks by Sri Lanka on Tamil Nadu fishermen. “The centre seems to think that the lives of fishermen belonging to Tamil Nadu are worthless and do not call for any potent action,” she had said. Jaya has been equally articulate and cogent in her arguments against the centre’s (read Sonia’s National Advisory Council) politically expedient development plug-ins that sought to fast-track human development through paperwork. It wanted her to endorse the Right-to-Food Act, but she asked them to take a walk. The state has a universal PDS system, that the Left and development economists have been arguing for, where as the new Act attempts targetting, a strategy that is consistent with neo-liberalists and the master of tied-lending, the World Bank. Reportedly, food minister KV Thomas tried to meet her in Chennai, but she didn’t have time. Similarly on poverty interventions, she has been right in advocating for household interventions. She also raised time and again the difficulty in controlling prices when the centre frequently raised fuel prices. Instead of resisting its temptation to hike the fuel price, the centre advised the states to offset the rise by giving up sales tax revenues. The central policies not only impede on the state’s autonomy, but also on its governance and welfare measures. However, her difference on NCTC should not be read as a soft stand on terrorism that is at variance with that of the centre. In fact, she is a true hardliner on the issue. She was a strong supporter of POTA and had even put one of her later allies Vaiko of MDMK in jail under this draconian Act. In 2006, she didn’t mind asking UPA-1 to bring back POTA. ‘By repealing POTA, the UPA government has compromised the safety and security of the people of India, leaving the general public defenceless and increasingly more vulnerable to terrorist attacks,’’ she had said in a statement. Her words were preceded by her consistent stand on LTTE. She took firm steps to ban it as a terrorist organisation when every state-grown party was either supportive or silent on the issue. Despite threats against her from LTTE, she never relaxed her position, even during the final attack on Tamils by the Sri Lankan army. She was vocal against the Sri Lankan Government and the support it received from the centre, but never once conflated LTTE with Sri Lankan Tamils. Interestingly, way back in 2007, she even asked the centre why the death penalty on Rajiv Gandhi’s assassins were not executed. “Is Sonia Gandhi not keen on implementing the death sentence of those who gruesomely killed Rajiv? Isn’t the Centre aware that the open support to the banned LTTE by some political leaders, including the chief minister who had taken oath under the Constitution, is against the Indian sovereignty." Indian sovereignty, terror and state autonomy. In Jaya-speak, all of them can definitely go together; but not top-down. The new world is about being bottom-up. Jayalalithaa isn’t saying anything else. It will also make greater sense if she applies the same principle in governing her state as well.
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