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TN governor asked to submit report

Tara Shankar Sahay in New Delhi

In a significant political development, the Centre has asked Tamil Nadu Governor Fathima Beevi to submit a report on the developments in the state since last midnight by 0900 IST on Sunday. The Union Cabinet will meet thereafter at 12 noon to discuss the report.

Law and Justice Minister Arun Jaitley told reporters after a meeting of the Union Cabinet that Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had asked him to instruct Home Secretary Kamal Pandey to seek the report.

Jaitley pointed out that the Tamil Nadu chief secretary had not yet sent any report on the incidents in the state, including the assault on two Union Cabinet ministers and their subsequent arrest, large-scale violation of human rights, assaults on journalists and the alleged attempt to infringe upon the freedom of a television news channel which was broadcasting footage of the arrest.

Jaitley said the prime minister had further directed a team of the Union home ministry to visit Tamil Nadu and independently submit a report on the developments there. The team, which leaves tonight, has been asked to meet Governor Fathima Beevi, but not Chief Minister J Jayalalitha.

The law minister pointed out that the recent developments in Tamil Nadu were a serious violation of constitutional guarantees and the Centre would take whatever action is required to restore constitutional norms.

Earlier, an emergency meeting of the co-ordination committee of the National Democratic Alliance urged Vajpayee to take all necessary steps to restore constitutional order, rule of law, and norms of federal polity in Tamil Nadu.

According to NDA convener George Fernandes, the meeting noted that the humiliating manner in which such a senior public figure of national standing was arrested on 'contrived' charges demonstrated "that this is entirely an act of vengeance".

"Such personal vendetta has no place in a democracy," the resolution adopted at the NDA meeting said.

Fernandes pointed out that the NDA was equally shocked by the 'illegal' arrest and manhandling of Union Minister for Environment and Forests T R Baalu. He said grave indignity had also been inflicted on Union Minister for Commerce and Industry Murasoli Maran, who was not only arrested but also injured and had to be hospitalised.

"It needs to be remembered that Thiru Maran has only recently undergone serious surgery and is still in delicate health," the resolution noted.

It said the Tamil Nadu government's action was an affront to the principles of federal polity. What the nation had witnessed in Madras early on Saturday had hurt the conscience of all democracy-loving people in the country, the resolution said, noting that "it is a wilful perversion of all norms of propriety to pursue a private agenda using the machinery of the state government. "It is a reminder of the dark days of the Emergency," it said.

Fernandes told reporters that NDA constituents like Telugu Desam Party chief N Chandrababu Naidu and even former ally Trinamul Congress chief Mamata Banerjee had telephonically told him that they would stand by all decisions taken by the Vajpayee government on this matter.

Those who attended the NDA meeting included Bharatiya Janata Party leaders Sikandar Bakht, Yashwant Sinha and Jaswant Singh, Maneka Gandhi (independent), Nitish Kumar (Samata Party) and Sharad Yadav (Janata Dal, United).

Karunanidhi's Arrest: The Complete Coverage

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