In an embarrassment for Union home minister Sushilkumar Shinde, more Union ministers than chief ministers attended the first chief ministers’ conference on “public order” on Monday with the absentee CMs again accusing the UPA government of trying to impinge on the federal powers of states, this time “in the guise of reforms”.
Only seven CMs — five from the north-eastern states, Orissa CM Naveen Patnaik and Uttarakhand CM Vijay Bahuguna attended the meet. While virtually all non-Congress CMs skipped it, most Congress CMs also stayed away, forcing the conference to wind up at 3 pm, hours before its scheduled time. Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, who had left the national capital Sunday night, led the charge in the form of a written speech, circulated at the gathering, that slammed attempts to push the UPA government’s police reforms agenda on the states. Tamil Nadu CM J. Jayalalithaa (AIADMK), the CMs of BJP-ruled Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh, Mr Narendra Modi and Mr Shivraj Singh Chouhan, respectively, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee (Trinamul) and ruled Tripura CM Manik Sarkar (CPI-M), among other CMs, also accused the Centre of constant attempts to disturb the federal polity. Even CMs of Congress-ruled states like Assam and Haryana took up cudgels against any attempt by the Centre to impinge on the powers of the states. The speeches of the absentee CMs were read out by the respective ministers and officials nominated by the CMs to attend the conference.
In a virtual snub to Mr Shinde, Punjab CM Parkash Singh Badal did not attend the conference even though he visited the venue of the conference, Vigyan Bhavan, to meet him. Incidentally, eight Central ministers and ministers of state were present at the CMs’ meet, including C.P. Joshi, Veerappa Moily, Kapil Sibal, V. Narayanasamy, Jairam Ramesh and ministers of state for home R.P.N. Singh and Mullapaly Ramachandran. However, law minister Ashwani Kumar and CBI director Ranjit Sinha were also conspicuous by their absence as their seats lay vacant while Mr Shinde tried to underline the importance of the recommendations of the Second Administrative Reforms Commission’s fifth report on “Public Order”.
Orissa CM Naveen Patnaik (BJD) was the first to speak, expressing “serious reservations” over the ARC’s recommendations. He said measures outlined in the report, like creation of a separate category of “federal crimes”, new legislation to govern the CBI and deployment of Central forces in states at the will of the Union government, are totally “against the federal structure and not acceptable”. He said the allegations that the CBI was being misused need to be looked at carefully. Ms Mamata Banerjee added that the “recommendation to extend the jurisdiction of the CBI seeks to deliver a blow to the well established legal autonomy guaranteed by the Constitution”.
While Assam CM Tarun Gogoi said he had reservations about defining “federal crimes” and “unilateral Central intervention”, Haryana CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda said, “We cannot support any step which compromises the federal structure in any manner. Law and order being state subjects should be allowed to remain a state responsibility”. The views were echoed strongly by all non-Congress ruled states.
Questioning the home ministry’s move to discuss the report at this stage, the CMs of Bihar and Tamil Nadu said the six-year-old report has “lost relevance” as many of its recommendations are “outdated and irrelevant”. While Mr Kumar criticised the ARC’s attempts to presume that “states are generally averse to police reforms with a vested interest in misusing the police structure in favour of the government”, Ms Jayalalithaa warned the Centre against making any changes unless there is “consensus” with the states.
Referring to the NIA, Mr Kumar said, “The trend appears to lead to a situation whereby the basic structure of the Constitution is being tampered with, and that too in the guise of reforms.” Ms Jayalalithaa added: “The Central government of late has been increasingly attempting to bypass state governments by reaching out directly to municipalities and panchayats.”
It can be recalled that the CMs of non-Congress ruled states have already opposed the UPA government’s move to set up a National Counter Terrorism Centre citing federal concerns. With fresh opposition from the CMs on Monday, any consensus on the NCTC at the annual CMs’ conference on internal security in May appears bleak.
Mr Shinde said the Centre has heard all the state governments and he agreed the government should move only after the concurrence of the states. He also tried to brush aside the poor attendance of CMs at the conference. “It is not that the CMs have boycotted the meeting. We have received representatives of 23 states while 15 CM have personally responded to my (invitation) letter. Even Opposition party CMs like Naveen Patnaik, Manik Sarkar and Neiphiu Rio attended it.” However, he added that in many states Assembly sessions are on and due to that many CM could not attend the meet.