Rallying behind its southern ally DMK in Tamil Nadu, the Centre on Thursday ruled out any action against the state government even as chief minister M Karunanidhi broke his planned fast halfway to avoid being charged with non-compliance by the Supreme Court, which made adverse comments.
The apex court had pulled up the DMK-led government, asserting that the UPA should not feel shy to dismiss the state government for failing to comply with its orders on holding a bandh. ??Is this a government. Is this the Tamil Nadu government. Is this the DMK government, a strong ally of UPA government? If this is the attitude of the DMK government, the UPA government should not feel shy of dismissing it and imposing President rule,?? the bench had observed.
The backing from the UPA on Monday inspite of the scathing remarks, came with information and broadcasting minister PR Dasmunshi making it clear that it would not do anything against the DMK-led government. ??We will do nothing to hurt the Tamil Nadu government. We are committed. They are part of our government. We will not disturb the state government remotely, directly or explicitly,?? Dasmunshi said.
The adverse observations, however, ware seized by the opposition BJP to launch a scathing attack on the UPA and the DMK, who said that the TN government had lost every constitutional right to stay in power. Urging the Centre to intervene and sack the state government, BJP general-secretary Arun Jaitley, a Supreme Court lawyer himself, said the attack on the SC by the UPA constituents and its ministers was a perfect textbook illustration of defying Constitution.
Lashing out at CPI(M) general-secretary Prakash Karat for supporting DMK in defying SC, Jaitley said, ??Karat may disagree, but he is in a position to overrule the Prime Minister. He, however, fortunately is not in a position to overrule the SC,?? and added that Constitution did not allow any government, political party or a person to arrogate itself/himself the authority to decide whether an order was worth compliance or not.
BJP president Rajnath Singh too charged that developments in Chennai proved that rule of law had been challenged and anarchy had crept in. ??The situation is for all to clearly see. First the Centre filed an affidavit questioning the existence of Lord Ram, which followed blasphemy by the DKM chief. This was then followed by violent attacks on BJP in Tamil Nadu. Now, finally a Union minister criticises the apex court. All these developments are disturbing, which concern the entire nation,?? Singh said.
