Attend meetings before talking about federalism: Annamalai

Days after Chief Minister MK Stalin wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the need to convene Inter-State Council meeting at least thrice a year, BJP state president K Annamalai on Saturday said that the council which was formed in 1990 had met only 11 times in the last 31 years.

It did not meet even once when the DMK was in power in the state and also was part of the UPA government at the Centre from 2006-14.

“The council which DMK and UPA forgot was brought to life again on July 16, 2016, by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, “Annamalai said in a statement here.

On May 22 this year, the Inter-State Council was reconstituted with the Prime Minister as its chairman and Home Minister as the chairman of the standing committee. Chief Ministers of all the states and six Union Ministers will be members of the council.

“In the last eight years many new councils have been formed between the Centre and the state and meetings are held regularly to ensure co-operative federalism. Unfortunately, the Chief Minister and the DMK Ministers who regularly skip meetings convened by the Central government, preach about cooperative federalism,” he noted.

Listing out the dates of various meetings skipped by the state ministers and department secretaries, he said that they cited frivolous reasons for skipping such meetings. “We are sure you will practice what you preach and request you to attend the next Inter-State Council meeting without fail. We also request the Chief Minister to be vigilant of the contents in the letter from his desk as a few Minister’s around him guide the contents in the letter to appease a few on social media,” he added.

In a letter to the Prime Minister, Stalin had requested Modi to organise at least three meetings of the Inter-state Council every year. “To strengthen the spirit of Cooperative Federalism, I strongly suggest that every bill of national importance be placed before the council before it is introduced into Parliament,” he wrote.