Echoes of Autonomy: Tamil Nadu Revives Push for State Rights Amidst Centre-State Tensions

Echoes of Autonomy: Tamil Nadu Revives Push for State Rights Amidst Centre-State Tensions

Highlights from the RMN News opinion article:

• Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin has formed a high-level committee to examine state autonomy amid concerns about the Union government encroaching on state powers.

• This new committee’s mandate includes studying the transfer of subjects from the Concurrent List back to the State List and addressing issues such as NEET.

• The formation of this committee follows a recent Supreme Court ruling that deemed the Governor’s withholding of assent to state bills as “illegal and erroneous”.

• This initiative echoes the Rajamannar Committee established in 1969 with a similar aim to ensure greater state autonomy.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin Forms High-Level Panel on State Autonomy Amid Rising Tensions with Centre: This headline, combined with the historical context of the Rajamannar Committee, signals a significant moment in the ongoing debate about federalism in India.

Almost fifty years after Tamil Nadu first raised concerns about the erosion of state powers, the state government, now led by MK Stalin, is once again pushing for greater autonomy by establishing a high-level committee to examine the relationship between the Union and the states.

This move comes amidst a backdrop of perceived central encroachment on state domains, echoing similar anxieties that prompted the formation of the Rajamannar Committee in 1969 under then Chief Minister C N Annadurai.

The newly formed committee, headed by retired Supreme Court judge Kurian Joseph, is tasked with undertaking a detailed study of Centre-State relations with the aim of safeguarding state autonomy. Its mandate includes examining the possibility of transferring subjects from the Concurrent List back to the State List and addressing contentious issues such as the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET), which the state government strongly opposes, viewing its rejection by the President as a “dark chapter in federalism”.

The committee, which also comprises former bureaucrat Ashok Vardhan Shetty and former vice-chairman of the State Planning Commission, M Naganathan, is expected to submit an interim report by January 2026 and a final report within two years.

This initiative is not without historical precedent. In 1969, driven by similar concerns about the “strong domination of the Centre” and its tendency to exercise control over states, C N Annadurai, a known federalist, established the Centre-State Relations Inquiry Committee under the leadership of Dr. P V Rajamannar, former Chief Justice of the Madras High Court.

That three-member committee was tasked with studying the Indian Constitution and recommending steps to ensure the “utmost autonomy of the State in the executive, legislative and judicial branches… without prejudice to the integrity of the country as a whole”.

The Rajamannar Committee’s report, submitted during the subsequent DMK regime under M Karunanidhi, lamented how states were increasingly under central command, becoming “practically the administrative units of the Centre”.

The committee critically analysed constitutional provisions like Articles 256, 257, and 365, which granted the Centre sweeping powers over states, including the enforcement of directives through President’s Rule, which it condemned as an “unprecedented constitutional weapon”.

Notably, the Rajamannar Committee recommended the complete repeal of Article 356 (President’s Rule) and the establishment of a strong Inter-State Council under Article 263 to foster dialogue in resolving differences.

Furthermore, the Rajamannar Committee criticised institutions like the Planning Commission, created by an executive order, for giving the Centre a “whip in its hands” through discretionary grant allocations, thereby rendering the constitutionally mandated Finance Commission less relevant and making states “suppliants for aid”.

The report also highlighted the Centre and Parliament’s increasing interference in matters exclusively belonging to the State List, suggesting an “anxiety on the part of the Centre to exercise an overall supervision”. It argued that true strength of the Centre lay in restraint and clarity of purpose, not in expansionism, cautioning that taking on too many obligations would lead to the Centre becoming “incurably weak”.

MK Stalin’s current push for greater state powers also follows a significant Supreme Court verdict on April 8, 2025, which ruled that Governor RN Ravi’s decision to withhold assent to ten re-enacted bills passed by the state legislature was “illegal and erroneous in law”.

The court clarified that the Governor is constitutionally bound to act based on the advice of the state legislature and must grant assent to bills reconsidered and re-presented by the assembly unless they are substantially different. Stalin hailed this verdict as a “landmark moment and a collective win for all Indian states”.

The formation of this new committee signals a clear intent by the Tamil Nadu government to not only seek policy reforms but also to pursue an “ideological realignment,” harking back to the Dravidian movement’s foundational belief in state empowerment.

The committee will study the current legal framework and recommend steps to restore state rights. However, the crucial question remains whether its findings will be heeded in New Delhi. The Rajamannar Report, despite its comprehensive analysis and recommendations, was never acted upon by the Centre.

Similarly, recommendations from later commissions like the Sarkaria Commission (1988) and Punchhi Commission (2010), which echoed some of the Rajamannar Committee’s concerns, have largely remained on the shelf.

As Annadurai eloquently stated in 1967, the ideal is a “fraternal and beneficial nexus” forged through mutual goodwill and understanding between the Centre and the states. MK Stalin’s initiative represents a renewed effort to achieve this balance, addressing long-standing concerns about the distribution of powers in India’s federal structure.

Whether this latest push will yield different results remains to be seen, but it undoubtedly injects fresh impetus into the critical dialogue surrounding state autonomy and the future of Centre-State relations in the country.