Centre won't disturb TN Govt despite SC order

New Delhi: As Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi plays shadow-boxing with the judiciary, defying a Supreme Court ban to go ahead with the agitation over the Sethusamudram project, the Centre has decided to cut corners.

After the Supreme Court warned the Tamil Nadu Government that it would not hesitate to direct the Centre to impose President's rule if the state fails to comply with its order on bandh, New Delhi said it would do nothing to ‘hurt’ the DMK-led government.

”We will do nothing to hurt the Tamil Nadu Government. We are committed. They (DMK) are part of our government,” Information and Broadcasting Minister PR Dasmunsi said.

On Monday, the apex court had asked the Centre as to what prompts it to shy away from imposing President's Rule. “If this is the attitude of the DMK, the UPA Government should not feel shy of dismissing it and imposing President's Rule,” the court said.

But the Union Government seems not ready to toe the SC line. “We will not disturb the state government remotely, directly or explicitly,” Dasmunsi said.

He was replying to a spate of questions on the apex court's observations that if there was no compliance with its order on bandh, it will have to direct the government to impose President's rule.

Maintaining that the issue did not figure in the Union Cabinet meeting, Dasmunsi said Chief Minister M Karunanidhi is ‘one of the stalwarts’, not just of the DMK, but of the entire country.

The Supreme court's poser to Centre came after the AIADMK filed another petition accusing the DMK of violating its orders. The court has warned the state government of inmitiating contempt proceedings.

"If there is no compliance with our order, it is complete breakdown of Constitutional machinery. We will then have to direct the government to impose President's rule," a bench headed by acting Chief Justice B N Aggarwal and Justice P Sathasivam said.

According to Dasmunsi, the TN Chief Minister has begun a “fast and (is) not violating the court order. This is a non-violent response showing respect to Mahatma Gandhi's ideals a day ahead of his birth anniversary.”

Karunanidhi, Dasmunsi said, has set an example through his support and concern for the poorest of the poor, the Scheduled Castes and tribes, minorities and the downtrodden sections of the people.

In an extraordinary sitting on Sunday, the apex court had stayed the bandh called by the ruling DMK-led Democratic Progressive Alliance and asked the government to stop it.

(With agency reports)