PDS, judicial service move against federalism, says Stalin

At a time when state government, regional parties and scholars were opposing the “one nation, one election” policy, Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Centre has fueled the fire by announcing “one nation, one ration card” and All India Judicial Service, which is unconstitutional and defeat the idea of federalism,” Stalin said, in a statement.

The Centre was making a mockery of Centre-State relations by proposing to implement PDS (public distribution scheme) in rural areas in the pretext of integrating PDS management, the DMK president who is also the Leader of Opposition added. “It is unfortunate that the Centre was attempting to infringe the rights of the states even while Ram Vilas Paswan was helming the food ministry,” Stalin added. “PDS is the basic right of states. Food Minister has not realised that disturbing that would amount to stirring the Hornet’s nest. The BJP regime is refusing to understand that,” he remarked, describing the June 30, 2020 deadline set by the Centre for the same as height of autocracy.

Taking exception to the announcement of Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad that district judges and magistrates would be directly appointed through All India Judicial Service, Stalin said the announcement of the Union Minister make a mockery of the federalism promised by the Prime Minister.

Describing the Law Minister’s proposal as ‘unacceptable,’ Stalin said the proposal was made with the autocratic intention to centralise all powers. He also added that the people of Tamil Nadu expect the ruling AIADMK to oppose the proposals at the outset and urge the Centre to drop the same.

Echoing the statements of Stalin, AMMK leader TTV Dhinakaran urged Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami to reject the “one nation, one ration card” proposal at an early stage. He cautioned that the state would suffer greatly if Palaniswami regime, which failed in getting due compensation from Centre to manage the financial strain caused by Uday and GST, adopts the same approach on the PDS issue.