His passing marks the end of an era in Tamil Nadu’s politics, and leaves a political void

The life story of Muthuvel Karunanidhi is also a history of Tamil Nadu politics. A five-time Chief Minister, and the longest serving legislator, winning 13 terms in the Assembly and not losing even once, Karunanidhi was the engineer of many of the progressive measures adopted by the State since Independence. As the leader of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, an offshoot of the rationalist social reform movement, the Dravidar Kazhagam, he was an influential figure at both State and national levels, whether in or out of power. He excelled as both administrator and organiser, adopting different styles, but always displaying a clinical efficiency while interacting with bureaucrats and party workers. Although his administrative acumen was often contrasted with the welfarism of his political rival, M.G. Ramachandran, Karunanidhi was not beyond the draw of populism. Extending the Public Distribution System and increasing food subsidies were coupled with efforts at generating employment and encouraging industrial investment. Towards the latter part of his political career, he emulated his political opponents, MGR and Jayalalithaa, in handing out freebies indiscriminately to every household, rich or poor. He was a crusader for federalism, often standing up to the Centre for the State’s rights. He was one of the foremost opponents of the Emergency. In 1976 and 1991, his governments were dismissed by the Centre, the first time citing corruption charges, and the second time citing support to the terror outfit, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

In his home State, he ran the DMK with an iron hand; at the same time, he provided some space for the second rung, even indulging the odd dissenter now and then, as long as there was no threat to his leadership. District secretaries and ministers had a long reign under him. His longevity permitted him the leeway to promote his immediate family members to positions of power within the party and the government. His designated successor, his younger son M.K. Stalin, had to work his way up the party ladder — from ordinary worker and youth wing leader before being accommodated in the top rungs of the party and government. But elder son M.K. Alagiri and grand-nephew Dayanidhi Maran were rewarded with Cabinet berths in their very first terms in the Lok Sabha. Karunanidhi will be remembered for being an astute politician, one with a quick wit and ready repartee; an able administrator with an uncanny eye for detail and a keen sense of the occasion; and as an elder statesman who could take the long-term view of events and issues. He straddled different generations and contrasting worlds with a reflexive ease. With his passing, less than two years after his rival Jayalalithaa succumbed to illness, Tamil Nadu is staring at a huge political void, one that that will be very hard to fill.

Assam begins deleting foreigners from NRC list

Action being taken on persons designated by Foreigner Tribunals.

District officials in Assam have begun work to delete the names of ‘declared foreigners’ whose names had been included in the complete draft of the updated National Register of Citizens (NRC) that was published on July 30.

In central Assam’s Morigaon district, officials have identified some 200 people declared foreigners by various Foreigners’ Tribunals or facing cases related to their doubtful citizenship.

Assam has 100 such tribunals where people of suspect nationality are required to prove they are Indians.

ALSO READ

Those excluded from final NRC can appeal in Foreigners Tribunal: Home Minister 

200 in Morigaon

“These 200 belong to 39 families scattered across the district. Some of them are declared foreigners while some others are suspected illegal immigrants with cases pending,” Morigaon Deputy Commissioner Hemen Das said “Their detection was not based on any complaint. A mechanism we have in place helped us find their names in the draft NRC. We are deleting their names from the list suo motu so that people don’t lose their faith in the system,” he said. However, he declined to reveal their names or their villages of residence for “security reasons”.

Fake papers in Hojai

The police in central Assam’s Hojai district too have filed charge-sheets against 91 people who had submitted fake documents while applying for Some of these people have since obtained bail from the Gauhati High Court and the lower courts, he said.“The civil administration had filed 24 cases against such people when the NRC first draft was being published. There papers were found to be forged,” the district’s Superintendent of Police Ankur Jain told The Hindu.

NRC Assam’s State Coordinator Prateek Hajela had on July 2 submitted before the Supreme Court that some 1.5 lakh would be deleted from the first draft due to various anomalies. The first draft, published on December 31, 2017, had the names of 1.9 crore of a total 3.29 applicants.

The 1.5 lakh included 65,694 cases of “family tree mismatch” while 48,456 cases were of married women who had submitted doubtful panchayat certificates. Another 19,783 were left out because of data entry errors.

Centre pushes for quota in promotion for SCs/STs

Cites historical deprivation, calls on Supreme Court to revisit 2006 Nagaraj ruling.

Citing “1000 of years of deprivation” suffered by Dalit communities, the government on Friday began its push for providing “accelerated promotion with consequential seniority” for Scheduled Castes/ Scheduled Tribes (SC/ST) members in public employment.

Following a 2006 judgment of the Supreme Court, the government cannot introduce a quota in promotion for its SC/ST employees unless they prove that the particular Dalit community is backward, inadequately represented and such a reservation in promotion would not affect the overall efficiency of public administration. The opinion of the government should also be based on quantifiable data.

The 2006 Nagaraj judgment was pronounced by a five-judge Constitution Bench.

Now, the government wants another five-judge Constitution Bench led by Chief Justice Dipak Misra to refer the 2006 verdict to a larger Bench for a re-examination. It had said that the 2006 verdict had effectively created an “impossible situation” for providing accelerated promotions with consequential seniority for SC/ST communities in government services.

Besides the Chief Justice, the Bench comprises Justices Kurian Joseph, Rohinton Nariman, Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Indu Malhotra.

Presumed backward

Attorney-General K.K. Venugopal submitted that the SC/ST communities have faced centuries of deprivation at the hands of society. They have been deprived of access to temples, schools and the basic facilities of life. Even today, Dalit grooms cannot ride horses.

“They are presumed backward,” Mr. Venugopal submitted.

The Attorney-General added that the State needs to show “affirmative action” by giving them equality of opportunity.

The government objected to a creamy layer concept among the SC/ST. “You cannot dissect the SC/ST and see those who are worthy (of quota) and those who are not,” Mr. Venugopal submitted.

As far as the qualifier “inadequate representation” was concerned, Mr. Venugopal asked, “How do you establish inadequacy of representation? Who will establish it? Is it for each post or the entire department?”

Government said it wanted a total of 22.5% (15% for SC+7.5% for ST) posts reserved for promotion for SC/ST in public employment. Only this quantum would satisfy their need for adequate representation.

Mr. Venugopal said it was not possible  comply in every case the conditions  laid down by the Nagaraj judgment in 2006.

“But most States did not prepare quantifiable data to show inadequacy/adequacy of representation. Why?” asked Chief Justice Misra asked Mr. Venugopal.

The AG replied that this was because “people die, retire… data keeps fluctuating". He said quantifiable data is not static and filling up vacancies was a dynamic and continuous process.

During the hearing, Chief Justice Misra said the three criteria — backwardness, inadequacy and administrative efficiency — were “compelling reasons” so that reservation by government was not excessive. The three qualifiers were meant to prevent reservation from making an inroad into the right of equal opportunity in public employment.

The Nagaraj judgment was mean to find “a stable equilibrium between justice to the backwards, equity for the forwards and efficiency for the entire system”. In fact, the Nagaraj judgment said the three qualifiers were meant to prevent “reverse discrimination” by State.

"It is made clear that even if the state has compelling reasons, the state will have to see that its reservation provision does not lead to excessiveness so as to breach the ceiling limit of 50% or obliterate the creamy layer or extend reservation indefinitely,” the Constitution Bench led by then Chief Justice Y.K. Sabharwal, had observed in the Nagaraj verdict.

In November 2017, a two-judge Supreme Court Bench led by Justice Kurian Joseph, had re-opened the issues of creamy layer and quota in promotions for SC/ST by referring them to a Constitution Bench.

The two-judge Bench’s referral was based on a series of questions of law, including clarity on Article 16 (4), which deals with the State's powers for providing for appointments or posts for “any backward class of citizens”; on Article 16 (4A), which arms the state with power to make provisions for quota in promotion with consequential seniority to SC/ST communities; and finally Article 16 (4B), which deals with unfilled vacancies of a year reserved for SC/ST kept from being filled up.

Issue of PM candidate will be taken up after polls: Opposition

Opposition parties have reached a “strategic understanding to work together” to stop the BJP-RSS combine from coming to power in 2019 and the issue of a Prime Ministerial candidate will be tackled later in a two-stage action plan, top Congress sources said on Friday.

Top leaders said discussions on the Prime Ministerial candidate is divisive at this stage. “So the focus is to have one platform where every like-minded Opposition party can be accommodated without any confusion and disruption.”

Leaving the choice of a PM candidate for post-poll discussions is significant as already West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has positioned herself as the front-runner. BSP chief Mayawati too has not shied away from expressing her prime ministerial ambitions if the grand alliance does well in Uttar Pradesh.

The Congress is of the view that alliances and pre-poll understanding in States such as Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra are crucial in the Opposition’s effort to stop PM Narendra Modi.

Party leaders claim that the alliance in Maharashtra with Sharad Pawar’s NCP is cemented and so is the case with Lalu Prasad’s RJD in Bihar. But in Uttar Pradesh, which elects 80 Lok Sabha members, the party is yet to stitch up a grand alliance with the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party.

The Congress Working Committee (CWC) has authorized Congress chief Rahul Gandhi "to have alliances with like minded parties.

Top leaders admit that conversations are on for a tie up in Uttar pradesh even as they denied media reports that Congress may be offered no more than two or three seats in the State on the basis of its strength.

Congress pins hopes on Hindi heartland

The party is looking at Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab, Chhattisgarh and Haryana among States where it expects to do well in next Lok Sabha polls. And that will help catapult it to the centre-stage of an opposition alliance.

In States like Delhi and Punjab, where the Congress and AAP are on the same side in their opposition the Modi government, top leadership of the Congress will give priority to the views of the State unit.

Despite its now strident opposition to the BJP, the Congress will not have any understanding with Shiv Sena since their ideologies don't align.

Senior leaders of the Congress are of the view that if the BJP doesn't get 230 seats or more on its own, NDA allies may prefer another Prime Ministerial candidate over Mr Narendra Modi.

Top leaders of the Congress asserted that despite attempts to tie them down in a polarising discourse, the Congress would run a campaign that would focus on a new deal for farmers, jobs and opportunities for India's youth.