Centre to issue 'warning' to Tamil Nadu Govt.

By Harish Khare

NEW DELHI, JULY 3. Rather than exercising the extreme option of invoking Article 356, the Centre today decided to issue a ``warning'' to the Tamil Nadu Government. The crux of the proposed ``warning'' is that the AIADMK Government would be required to ``rectify'' all the violations of law and constitutional provisions that have taken place since the June 29-30 eruption. Also, the State Government would be asked to identify and penalise ``as per the law'' those officials who exceeded their brief and committed ``excesses''.

The ``warning'' would be issued as per the recommendation of the Sarkaria Commission that before invoking

Article 356, the Centre must ``warn'' the offending State Government to mend its ways. The idea of ``warning'' is also inherent in the Bommai case. The Centre would also demand a ``compliance'' report within a time-frame from the Tamil Nadu Government. The actual ``warning'' would be drafted by the Union Home Ministry.

The decision came after a two-hour meeting of the Union Cabinet, at the Prime Minister's residence. The Union Home Minister, Mr. L. K. Advani, was also present, for the first time since the ``crisis'' erupted on June 30. Mr. Advani is believed to have pointed out the pitfalls of invoking Article 356, when the ruling National Democratic Alliance did not have the requisite numbers in the Rajya Sabha to have the Centre's decision ratified. However, he also felt that a ``message'' should go out to the AIADMK regime that it could not violate with impunity the letter and spirit of the Constitution.

The Cabinet also had the benefit of the advice of the Attorney- General, Mr. Soli Sorabjee. Mr. Sorabjee enunciated the constitutional options open to the Centre. The Attorney-General's presence was requisitioned by the Prime Minister to ensure that the Centre's response was strictly within the constitutional parameters, and was not dictated by political intemperance. The ``warning'' strategy satisfies the hot-heads within the NDA that the constitutional book has been thrown at Ms. Jayalalithaa, but the strategy also puts the pot of confrontation on the back burner.

Slow climbdown

With today's decision, the brewing confrontation between the Centre and the State Government appears to have been dissipated. On her part, having made the point of inflicting political vengeance against Mr. Karunanidhi and other senior DMK leaders, Ms. Jayalalithaa had no interest in picking up a confrontation with the Centre. The AIADMK regime had in fact begun yesterday its very slow climbdown from the commanding heights of defiance of the Centre; it had ordered that the two Ministers be released, and today began the process of releasing from jail the DMK activists who had courted arrest in the wake of Mr. Karunanidhi's arrest.

Furthermore, the Jayalalithaa regime chose to blink one more time today when it announced its decision to drop the cases altogether against the two Central Ministers. But the State Government made it out that this was being done as a gesture of ``deference to the views expressed by the Government of India and more specifically the Prime Minister of India''.

However, the Centre was not willing to let the Tamil Nadu Government get away with this show of political reasonableness. An official statement from the Prime Minister's Office termed ``incorrect'' the State Government's assertion that Mr. Vajpayee had sought any concession for his ministerial colleagues. ``The Prime minister never made any request to the State Government to consider dropping the charges against the Central Ministers,'' it said. Responsible sources insisted that no one from the Centre was authorised to make any request to the State Government.

Keen on defusing crisis

The Prime Minister was also keen on ending the stand-off with Ms. Jayalalithaa. It was beginning to dawn here that the AIADMK too had joined the battle of political images and prejudices, and responsible officials at the Centre were convinced that the conduct of two Central Ministers on June 30 would not stand close scrutiny; one view was that by their conduct the two Ministers had put at stake the credibility and dignity of the Centre. Hence, the willingness to meet the AIADMK regime half-way.

Earlier, Mr. Sorabjee held consultations with the Union law Minister, Mr. Arun Jaitley, on the legal issues arising out the two Union Ministers' arrest. Mr. Sorabjee also called on the Prime Minister and probably got a drift of Mr. Vajpayee's thinking on how to defuse the situation.

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