The UPA Government at the Centre got a mouthful from Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa for its ‘unnecessary encroachment upon the State’s powers which is seriously compromising the maintenance of public order’.
In her speech at the National Integration Council meeting held in New Delhi on Monday (which was read out by her Cabinet colleague KP Munusamy Minister for Rural Development ), Jayalalithaa blasted the Centre’s move to introduce the National Counter Terrorism Centre and the controversial Prevention of Communal and Targeted Violence Bill 2011 through the back door. Jayalalithaa charged with facts and figures that the ‘Government of India has been increasingly taking unilateral steps and creating top down structures and parallel authorities that encroach upon the Constitutional domain of the State Government’.
“This is an ill-advised and counter-productive approach best illustrated by the ham-handed manner in which the National Counter Terrorism Centre was sought to be established or by the shoddy manner in which the Communal Violence Bill has been drafted,” Jayalalithaa said in her speech.
The Tamil Nadu Chief Minister said the Prevention of Communal and Targeted Violence (Access to Justice and reparations) Bill 2011 would not meet the desired objective of curbing vociferous religiosity or preventing communal or targeted violence. “Many provisions of the Bill are vaguely worded and leave themselves open to wide subjective interpretation and hence are liable to be misused. Clause 20 of the Bill which gives extensive power to the Central Government and the proposed National Authority for Communal Harmony, Justice and Reparation is a direct assault on State autonomy,” she said. Jayalalithaa warned the Centre that the Bill in its present form would end up as a remedy worse than the disease.
Without naming any incident or individual in particular, Jayalalithaa lambasted the UPA Government for setting aside orders issued by the State Government. The Chief Minister has taken serious note of the recent actions of the Union Home Ministry which revoked the National Security Act slapped by the Tamil Nadu Government against one of the leaders of the PMK.
Kaduvetti Guru, the PMK leader, was detained under the NSA on May 10 for alleged hate speech against the Dalits at Mahabalipuram. This was revoked by the Union Government. Guru was arrested again under the NSA on July 3. But the Union Government revoked the order on August 22. The Tamil Nadu Government got him arrested again under the NSA on August 23. The plea challenging the arrest of Guru under the NSA is being heard by the Madras High Court.
Jayalalithaa described the Al Umma and All India Jihad committee as fundamentalist organisations. “These fundamentalist organisations have been banned in Tamil Nadu. Activities of the elements owing allegiance to the SIMI are being carefully monitored,” she said.
The Tamil Nadu Chief Minister also bemoaned the drastic reduction in the Centre’s share of the Police Modernisation Scheme. “During the year 2012-13, the Centre’s share in the police modernisation programme came down from 75 per cent to 60 per cent,” Jayalalithaa said.