India cannot be saved unless the states are saved, Tamil Nadu chief minister and DMK leader M.K. Stalin has said, lambasting the Narendra Modi government’s “authoritarianism” at the CPM party congress in Kannur, Kerala.

Stalin, invited to speak at Saturday’s seminar on Centre-state relations, accused the Modi administration of trying to arrogate to itself all powers, even seeking to control from Delhi the cooperative societies in villages.

The BJP’s slogan of “one nation, one election, one cuisine, one exam, one educational system, one religion, one language, one tradition, one culture and reducing everything to one will lead to one-party rule,” he said.

“It may further come down to a single individual. The BJP may be happy with single-party rule but if the entire government is reduced to one person, then even BJP members will have to fight alongside us.”

Stain said the Constitution never envisaged a unitary government at the Centre.

“Even the British rulers did not give themselves the enormous powers of a unitary state,” he said, citing the Government of India Act of 1919 that sought to grant more powers to the provinces.

He alleged the BJP’s authoritarianism had exceeded that of the Raj and quoted Mahatma Gandhi: “Swaraj without autonomy is akin to replacing the white tiger with the Indian tiger.”

Stalin also referred to Bhagat Singh’s fears of “brown sahebs replacing white sahebs in the seat of power”, expressed in a letter the revolutionary wrote his mother.

The DMK leader said the states were closer to people’s doorsteps and better placed to provide them with welfare, and that making the states “look to the Centre with a begging bowl” was anti-Constitution and a “betrayal of the people’s trust”.

He said the GST regime had reduced the states’ revenue-raising powers and that the compensation the Centre paid for this was tardy. “Other grants due to the states are hardly released in time. The Centre owes Tamil Nadu Rs 21,000 crore in various dues,” the chief minister said.

He said MPs were unable to secure proper replies to issues raised in Parliament. “They (the BJP) achieve whatever they want with their majority and get things done through the governors appointed by them.”

He said the Tamil Nadu governor was still sitting on the NEET exemption bill passed by the Assembly twice, and was yet to decide on 11 other bills passed since the DMK returned to power in May last year.

“When there is a democratically elected ministry in the state, to bypass that and let the governors call the shots is repugnant to the Constitution,” Stalin said.

‘Puppet CMs’

“Whether it is Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan or me as Tamil Nadu chief minister, we won’t face any pressure if we are content being puppets,” Stalin said in a lighter vein, referring to the Thaliayatti Bommai, the Thanjavur dolls that nod all the time.

“But why should elected chief ministers be puppets — that is the question.”

Stalin urged all the states to unite in fighting the denial of their rights. As a first step, the chief ministers of all the southern states should form a council, followed by the establishment of a larger body of all the states, to take up issues such as state autonomy, secularism, social justice and “a truly Federal India”, he said.

‘Enduring bond’

Earlier, prefacing his speech with remarks in Malayalam, Stalin drew cheers as he said he had accepted Vijayan’s invite to speak at the seminar as the DMK and the CPM shared an enduring political bond.

Like the country’s first elected communist ministry under E.M.S. Namboodripad that was undemocratically dismissed in 1959, the DMK faced the axe of Article 356 twice — in 1976 during the Emergency and again in 1991, he said. On both occasions, Stalin’s father M. Karunanidhi was chief minister.

“The love and affection that Pinarayi has shown me brought me here, besides the deep roots of the centuries-old social and cultural ties between Kerala and Tamil Nadu, which go back to the classical age of Tamil Sangam poetry,” Stalin said as Vijayan listened on.

“You will appreciate that rationalist leader (and DMK icon) Periyar had as early as 1932 translated the Communist Manifesto into Tamil. The Dravidian Movement is known for its cadre naming their children after Lenin and other Russian personalities. My own name is Stalin.”

The last sentence drew wild applause. Joseph Stalin had died four days after M.K. Stalin’s birth, and Karunanidhi had named his son after the departed Russian leader.

Stalin lauded Vijayan as an “exemplar” of good governance and described him as the “Iron Man” among chief ministers. He said he had been inspired by Kerala’s management of the Covid crisis and its performance in education, public health and women’s rights.