MK Stalin Forms Panel For Tamil Nadu's Autonomy Amid Run-Ins With Governor

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin has set up a high-level committee - under retired Supreme Court Chief Justice Kurien Joseph - to recommend measures on state autonomy with a view to protect state governments' rights and improve working relations with the union government.

The committee has also been tasked with recommending measures to retrieve state subjects moved to the concurrent list; i.e., to return areas of governance and policy-making that were once left to state governments but are now jointly administered by the state and centre.

The committee - which will include former bureaucrats Ashok Shetty and Mu Nagarajan - is expected to assess and evaluate laws without affecting the integrity of the union of states that makes up India.

An interim report is due by January 2026 with a final submission by 2028.

The aim, Mr Stalin told the Assembly, is to protect the rights of all states, including Tamil Nadu.

'Autonomy' Amid Governor Row

This is significant move given the fierce, ongoing stand-off between Tamil Nadu's ruling DMK and the BJP-led central government over education, including the state's push to exempt itself from NEET, the contentious and centrally-administered admission exam for medical courses across India.

It is also significant given continuing hostilities between Chief Minister Stalin's government and Governor RN Ravi, who was last week pulled up by the Supreme Court for delaying, beyond his authority, 10 bills passed by the Tamil Nadu government, including those pending for five years.

The Supreme Court called Mr Ravi's actions "arbitrary" and "illegal".

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Mr Stalin - whose party has repeatedly accused the central government-appointed Governor of trying to scuttle state development projects - welcomed the "historic" verdict.

The bills, many of which amend rules on the appointment of Vice Chancellors of state-run universities by reducing the power of the Governor to make such appointments, were made into laws this week.

Shifting Education To State List...

Education is on the concurrent list, meaning it is administered by states and the centre.

But Mr Stalin has demanded it should solely be a state subject, and has asked for the reversal of the 42nd amendment to the Constitution, which shifted education to the concurrent list.

The NEET face-off came to a boil earlier this month after President Droupadi Murmu rejected a bill, twice passed by the Tamil Nadu Assembly, to allow the state to use Class XII marks instead.

"The union government may have rejected Tamil Nadu's request... but our fight is far from over. We will consult legal experts on how to challenge this decision," he had said.

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Another major point of contention between the Tamil Nadu and the centre is the three-language formula in the National Education Policy, which has triggered a 'Hindi imposition' row.

The two sides are battling over a policy that says, among other points, students in Class VII and above must learn a third language (in addition to a mother tongue and English) from a list of 22.

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The DMK has objected, pointing out the existing two-language policy has served the state - the second-largest contributor to the Indian economy - well enough.

The Tamil party has also accused the centre, specifically Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, of trying to 'blackmail' it into submission by threatening to withhold Rs 2,500 crore in education funds.

Mr Pradhan and the BJP rubbished the 'blackmail' allegation and countered by accusing the DMK of backtracking on earlier promises to implement, fully, the new education policy.

The BJP also argued the policy does not force a student to study Hindi.

Battle Builds Before Polls

The myriad rows between the DMK and the BJP - including one on a delimitation exercise scheduled for next year, an exercise the Tamil party fears will reduce its numbers in Parliament, at the expense of Hindi-speaking (and BJP-voting) states in the north - come as the southern state preps for an election.

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Tamil Nadu, which has historically rejected the BJP and its muscular nationalist agenda, will vote in an Assembly election next year. The national party has re-allied with the main opposition - the AIADMK.

With input from agencies

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