Modi wants to abolish states, if not, reduce them into ‘municipalities’: Stalin

Chennai: Alleging that Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants to at least reduce states into “mere municipalities” if he is not able to “abolish” them completely, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin on Tuesday accused the BJP-led Centre of binding the “entire administration” of states to the Governor’s mansion by disregarding the Constitution.

In the third episode of his ‘Speaking for India’ podcast series, Stalin trained guns on Modi by drawing a contrast between his previous tenure as Gujarat Chief Minister and his current Prime Ministerial tenure.

While Chief Minister Modi stood steadfast in favour of more devolution of powers to states, Stalin said, Prime Minister Modi is moving towards a single party and a single leadership by “fragmenting and destroying” the world’s second largest democratic system.

“But post coming to Delhi as Prime Minister, he did not even like the first line of the Constitution which goes, ‘India, that is Bharat, shall be a Union of States,” Stalin said.

In the podcast, Stalin explained in detail that State Autonomy is one of the founding principles of his party, DMK, and steps taken by his predecessors, including his father M Karunanidhi, in securing more rights to states from the Union Government.

BJP wants a “dictatorial government” as favoured by the RSS and that is why their rule does not follow the Constitution, nor does it respect states, Stalin alleged.

Dedicating a portion of his podcast to target Governors at a time his government is involved in a running battle with R N Ravi, Stalin said states are neither allowed to act within the powers granted to it by the Constitution nor the Union Government is ready to listen to the suggestions from the state.

“BJP led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi is of the opinion that the states should be abolished, if not, they should at least be reduced into mere municipalities…Binding the entire administration of the states to the governor's mansions has become BJP’s action plan,” Stalin said.

On Monday, the Chief Minister had accused Governor Ravi of turning into a “BJP man” and converting the Raj Bhavan into “BJP office” through “outright lies” that a petrol bomb was thrown at the premises despite CCTV footage showing otherwise.

He alleged that the BJP was stonewalling 19 legislations passed by the Tamil Nadu Assembly by stopping approval to them through the Governor and asked people to take note of the way the rights of the states and the dignity of the legislatures are being “belittled”.

“By moving towards a single party - a single leadership - a single prime minister with a singular power, they are fragmenting and destroying the second largest democratic system. Overall, state rights have been crushed under the BJP regime, federalism and democracy given by our constitution are made to shed tears along with the people of the country,” he added.

He said despite the Union Government preventing states from functioning and ensuring that Governors, who get their salaries from state governments but work against its welfare, Opposition-led states have accomplished “so much” and added, “if we form a Union government that respects the federal norms, all the states will flourish better.”

Stalin also appealed to voters in five states that are facing assembly elections to hand over the reins to I.N.D.I.A. alliance.

While referring to his second episode of the podcast in which he raised the CAG reports that pointed to irregularities in several schemes, the DMK chief said media has reported that CAG officers who uncovered corruption in the BJP government were transferred en masse on September 12.

“Look at the speed at which action has been taken! Well, let's see if they are going to react with the same speed regarding the things that are going to be discussed in this episode,” he said, before talking about how the BJP was usurping state’s rights.

Before coming to power, Modi promised programs will be planned for the states without centralisation from New Delhi, but he disbanded the Planning Commission which gave Chief Ministers a platform to voice their opinion and created Niti Ayog, which “doesn't really” serve any purpose, Stalin said.

Talking about economy, Stalin said the BJP-led Union Government didn’t even extend the compensation period for GST and has failed to release state's shares on time.

“In short, due to GST, the financial situation of the states is in the ICU! Due to the decrease in the allocation of funds in the 12th Finance Commission, Tamil Nadu has suffered a loss of around Rs 85,000 crore rupees in the last 19 years and we are poised to lose more than Rs 10,000 crore rupees every year from now on,” he added.