Southern States - Tamil Nadu   

Scrap Article 356 lock, stock and barrel: Jayalalithaa

By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI AUG. 27. The Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa, today called for "wholesale deletion" of Article 356 from the Constitution, saying the provision was open to political misuse.

In her speech at the Inter-State Council meeting in Srinagar, delivered by the Finance Minister, C. Ponnaiyan, she said: "The protean potential of this provision for negation of State autonomy has often lent itself to versatile temptations at the hands of political pettifoggers."

Making out a case for ending the "colourable and insidious use" of the Article, she said: "We have gone beyond a situation of putting in place checks and balances to prevent its arbitrary use, as they can also be easily circumvented on grounds of political expediency." The Article was an extraordinary provision that should have been used only rarely, in extreme situations, as a last resort when all other corrective alternatives failed. But the Article had been brought into action innumerable times, she said.

`Stultification' of autonomy

Ms. Jayalalithaa argued that the supremacy of Parliament on subjects, in which the State legislatures have a role, contributed to stultification of State autonomy. "There is a strong case for allowing a natural shift of duties and responsibilities enshrined in the Union and Concurrent lists to the State list along with the concomitant transfer of resources. I am of the considered opinion that legislative powers on all residual matters should rest only with the States. In respect of the legislative powers of the Union on items of Concurrent List, while we may accept the mandatory consultative process between the Union and the States in enforcing existing Union laws, the Centre should obtain prior concurrence of the States in the case of proposed legislation."

While reiterating her Government's commitment to cooperate with the Union in maintenance of national security and sovereignty, she said the Sarkaria Commission recommendations on deployment of armed forces were "generally acceptable."

On reforms in civil service, she said these were crucial for improving quality and efficiency of service delivery. There was need for greater functional autonomy and institutional arrangements that "reward good performance and penalise the bad eggs."

In this context, she also called for decentralisation and devolution of powers. "Centralised planning through the Planning Commission, considerable preponderance of legislative powers of the Union, absolute financial dependence of the States on the Centre all negate the very logic of reforms."

The Chief Minister took the opportunity to point out that the unanimous decision taken at the National Development Council meeting that all releases by the Government of India would be made directly into the Consolidated Fund of the States from the current financial year had been overturned. "Are the States not to be trusted?"

In conclusion, Ms. Jayalalithaa said a dual polity, implicit in federalism, demanded constitutional morality and "paramount reverence" for the specifics of the Constitution.

"Unfortunately, in India, we have singularly failed in the conscientious implementation of effective decentralisation through financial, developmental and legislative autonomy," she said.

"We, the States, are not asking for the moon. All that we say is `whatever touches all should be decided by all'." It was time to make the Constitution work at its best for the development and welfare of the people.

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