Tactical overkill

THE CENTRE'S DECISION to recall the Tamil Nadu Governor, Ms. Fathima Beevi, ostensibly for her ``failure'' to give an ``objective and independent assessment'' of the situation associated with and arising from the arrest of the former Chief Minister, Mr. M. Karunanidhi, last weekend, has unalloyed partisan politics written all over it - that Ms. Beevi chose to resign before the actual recall is a different matter. If the brutalities and humiliating indignities heaped on Mr. Karunanidhi and the two DMK Union Ministers, Mr. Murasoli Maran and Mr. T. R. Baalu, by a police contingent that ran berserk while executing the nocturnal operation reeked of the Chief Minister, Ms. Jayalalithaa's viciously personal vendetta, the Vajpayee Government's response targeting Ms. Fathima Beevi is manifestly dictated by political calculations and certainly violates the spirit of the Constitutional framework. It is no secret that the ruling coalition was cut up with Ms. Fathima Beevi for having sworn Ms. Jayalalithaa in as Chief Minister after the Assembly elections in May (in the face of a raging controversy over the AIADMK supremo's `eligibility' under the law) without even consulting the Union Home Ministry before making up her mind, and Mr. L. K. Advani had left no one in doubt about his unhappiness over the Governor's action, although the demand for her recall as such (made by the DMK and the BJP's State unit) was rejected by the Prime Minister. Evidently, the Centre has now found a good enough ground for easing Ms. Fathima Beevi out and this is a clear case of using - or rather misusing - the provisions pertaining to the Constitutional functionary, the Head of State, to make a political point.

In making the narrowly partisan and politically contentious move of displacing an `inconvenient' Governor, the Vajpayee dispensation has needlessly, and unacceptably, deflected public attention from a whole range of basic issues impinging on democratic norms, human rights, dignity of life and, above all, the rule of law - issues that came to exercise the people's mind totally and nationwide as video tapes showed, in all their horrendous details, scenes of the septuagenarian Mr. Karunanidhi, a four- time Chief Minister, being roughed up and dragged along and of Mr. Maran (in fragile health) being pulled down violently by men in uniform. Add to these the massive arrests effected by the police in the name of `preventive action' - the number is placed officially at around 23,000 - and the subtle and not-so- subtle attempts to infringe upon the freedom of the Press, what emerges is a dismaying picture of a State that is rapidly descending into an authoritarian Police Raj. If the disclaimers of the Government are unconvincing, the video footage of the happenings screened by the political belatedly (for unexplained reasons) has in no way served to detract from the excesses committed brazenly by the law enforcers on that dreadful night. The sense of public outrage and the groundswell of protest the police highhandedness had generated across the country virtually isolated Ms. Jayalalithaa politically, with her own partners in the secular front, including the Congress(I), the Tamil Maanila Congress and the Left parties, strongly disapproving of the treatment meted out to Mr. Karunanidhi. Now that the ruling National Democratic Alliance is seen to be playing partisan politics - which is what the move for evicting Ms. Fathima Beevi from the Raj Bhavan means, the suspicion being that it wants to appoint a `pliable' Governor in her place - the thrust of the current public discourse and political campaign is bound to get dissipated, with the debate digressing into Constitutional issues related to the delicately balanced role of a Governor vis-a-vis the Centre on the one hand and the State Government concerned on the other. The imperatives of rule of law, human rights and democratic values demand that the core issues thrown up by the autocratic ways of the Jayalalithaa regime do not get submerged and lost sight of in petty politics.

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