Chennai: Chief Minister M K Stalin on Tuesday sounded a word of warning that Tamil Nadu would witness massive agitations bringing the state to a halt with "protests with full force," if anything was done harming the state or if the political power of northern states was disproportionately increased in delimitation.
The chief minister's remarks came amidst the preparations for a special parliamentary session with the declared agenda of passing a constitution amendment bill providing for a third of seats in parliament and state legislative assemblies; but the ruling party has also a not so clearly spelt out intention of increasing the strength of Lok Sabha and state assemblies by 50%. Since a draft of the proposed bill has not been provided to the parties, nor has the Union government agreed to hold an all-party meeting on the subject, the Opposition parties, especially the constituents of the INDIA group has apprehensions about the intent of the ruling front and the actual content of the bill. This is tied to a Delimitation exercise of constituencies, which again can be manipulated to suit the interests of the BJP and its allies.
In the light of this, reiterating his allegation that secrecy shrouds the proposed delimitation process, Stalin in a video message said without consulting not just the DMK but any political party or any state, the BJP-led Centre was attempting to proceed unilaterally.
"At this moment, I wish to say something important to the Union BJP government and to the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi. In the forthcoming Parliamentary session, our Members of Parliament will participate," he said However, "if anything is done that harms Tamil Nadu, or that disproportionately enhances the political power of northern states, we in Tamil Nadu will not remain silent." The Dravidian party chief warned that Tamil Nadu will come to a standstill. Tamil Nadu will register its protest with full force. Every family will take to the streets. Under my leadership as the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, we will organise a massive agitation," he said
(PTI inputs)