Chennai: A defiant Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, M Karunanidhi, fell in line with the Supreme Court on Monday and broke his planned fast halfway after the court had observed in the morning that it would ask the Centre to impose President's rule in the state if there was no compliance of its order which would be a Constitutional breakdown.
The CM, who had sat along with the front leaders on a dawn-to-dusk hunger strike in a change of plans after the Supreme Court stay on Sunday, rushed to the Secretariat, just a short distance from the venue of the fast, after he heard of the apex court's observations. His ministerial colleagues followed suit immediately.
Official sources said shortly after the Supreme Court observations Chief Secretary LK Tripathy had given instructions for operation of the public transport. But little improvement was seen on the roads. The said buses were off the roads because the crew did not report for duty
However, a virtual bandh was observed across the state in spite of the Supreme Court order on Sunday. The bandh had been called to press for the speedy implementation of the Sethusamudram project.
Very few buses plied while shops downed their shutters, cinema houses remained closed and thin attendance was reported in government offices throughout the state following the call for a bandh by the ruling DMK-led front.
Karunanidhi however claimed that there was no bandh in the state and there was no Constitional breakdown. “For you, there might be, but for us normal life was not affected,” he told reporters after attending to his official work there.
He asserted that buses were plying and normal life remained unaffected in the state. “Those who were born as Tamils have voluntarily closed their shops,” he said.
The AIADMK, which moved the Supreme court, after an unsuccessful bid in the Madras High Court to get the bandh banned on Sunday, had moved the apex court on Monday when it made stinging observations against the state government.
On the fast organised by the DMK and its allies, he said the apex court had not banned it. ”We are abiding by the court (order),” he said.
At the fast venue, DMK and alliance leaders were critical of the Supreme Court observations with one of them observing the court had ‘crossed its jurisdiction’.
Bandh was a democratic form of protest and there was no constitutional breakdown, CPI leader D Raja said, adding that the majority of the government can be only tested on the floor of the legislature.
Senior DMK leader and Union Minister TR Baalu wondered whether the courts were giving the right decisions. “Why would there be appeals or higher benches if every judge was right?”
In an apparent reference to a recent controversy, Baalu said: “Even persons in the judiciary commit scandals. There is an impeachment procedure even for judges in this regard.”
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