The Big Story: Missing in action

Former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa’s absence from the political scene is still being keenly felt in the state that, more than half a year later, is still not sure who is leading it. The lack of clarity about an elected chief minister is not the only kind of leadership Tamil Nadu is missing. It has also gone without a full-time governor for more than a year now. And it shows.

Ever since two of the sparring factions of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, one led by Chief Minister Edapadi Palaniswami and the other by former Chief Minister O Panneerselvam, settled their differences, the services of the acting governor have yet again been needed to administer various matters in the state.

Initially, Vidyasagar Rao, who is full-time governor of Maharashtra, was prompt in making his way to Chennai to administer the oath to Panneerselvam and other members of his faction who were now rejoining the government. Yet following that, the governor has once again been missing in action. Three sets of groups have written to him effectively saying that under the new terms, Palaniswami needs to prove his majority on the floor of the Assembly. The Congress demanded a floor test, the Opposition Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam did as well and most importantly 19 Members of Legislative Assembly in the TTV Dinakaran camp said they were withdrawing support to the chief minister – a number that would be enough to see the government fall.

That is no trifling matter. It involves the question of whether the Tamil Nadu government is truly representative of the voters who cast their ballots in last year’s elections (which now seem like they were a generation ago). Palaniswami must be asked to prove his majority.

Instead, after accepting the letters, Rao has been quiet. In the meantime, resort politics has returned, with the 19 MLAs in the Dinakaran camp being sequestered in a hotel in Puducherry while other AIADMK leaders try to poach them. The acting governor’s reluctance to move quickly suggests tacit approval of this horse-trading.

It is in the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s interests that the AIADMK government does not fall, and as the representative of Delhi in the state, Rao is presumably carrying out instructions from the capital. Yet he is constitutionally mandated to demand that the chief minister prove his majority within a few days after a floor test has been asked for. A recent judgment on this suggests that the floor test must happen within five days of the initial demand. Any delay on Rao’s part would display blatant partisanship, and count as a betrayal of Tamil voters.

Meanwhile, there is another question about the BJP’s governance skills that must be brought up: Why has it failed to appoint a full-time governor for a major state like Tamil Nadu for more than a year now?

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Punditry

  1. “The middle class doesn’t have the foggiest that it is consigning its vital identity of being ‘the people’ to the ritual flames of evening television day after day,” writes Ravish Kumar in the Wire.
  2. Gautam Bhatia in the Hindu explains the alarming scenario that nearly became reality through the dissenting opinion in the triple talaq judgment, and also breaks down what the majority opinion does not achieve.
  3. “While India must prepare for the possibility of the US slipping back to its old ways on Pakistan, Delhi’s current emphasis must be on taking advantage of the Trump discontinuity in the American policy towards the Subcontinent,” writes C Raja Mohan in the Indian Express.
  4. Sudeep Chakravarti in Mint explains what would happen if the Union Government would devolve the power to invoke AFSPA completely to the states.
  5. “The families now face an uphill task in proving that the spike in fatalities on August 10 and 11 was caused by criminal negligence on the part of the entire health system at the State and district level,” writes Vidya Krishnan in the Hindu about the aftermath of the deaths in Gorakhpur.

Giggle

Don’t miss

Lakshmi Prabhala writes about a “restaurant” for vultures in Telangana that could help bring the species back from extinction.

“The discovery of this vulture habitat occurred by chance in 2013. ‘I first heard of these scavenger birds from villagers around who called it Raga Pantalu, or a local aberration of Rabandulu – Telugu for vultures,’ recalled Forest Range Officer Mohan. ‘During our exploration, we arrived at the base of this steep cliff and discovered it was a nesting ground for vultures.’

It took the officer about two months to confirm the identity of the species. ‘Once the identity was established conservation efforts were a logical follow up,’ Mohan added.”