CHENNAI: The 35-year-old attempt of the DMK to revive the Legislative Council continues in the current Assembly elections too with the party making it an electoral promise. This time, so far, two more political parties -- Congress and AMMK -- have also made this promise to the people.
While there is no surprise in the Congress making this promise as it has supported the revival of the Council for a long time, the AMMK which swears on following the path shown by late leaders MG Ramachandran and J Jayalalithaa sprang a surprise in this regard. However, the AMMK did not cite any significant need for deviating from the stand of their leaders on the issue.
During the negotiations for seat-sharing, VCK president Thol Thirumavalvan had gone on record saying that the DMK had promised to accommodate functionaries of the party in the Legislative Council to be revived after the Assembly elections. So, it was clear that revival of the Legislative Council could be a ‘pacifying’ point during the seat-sharing negotiations. The VCK and other allies of the DMK agreed for a lesser number of seats though they demanded more. Hence the electoral promise for reviving the Council became an important assurance.
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When asked about the relevance of the Council after 35 years in Tamil Nadu, political analyst Tharasu Shyam backed its revival. He pointed out that late leaders Rajaji, CN Annadurai, MG Ramachandran and many others were once members of the Legislative Council. Also, the Council would be a continuing entity even if the popular government loses power.
“Ours is a representative democracy and as such, all sections of society need to be represented in the legislative body. But since ours is a first-past-the-post electoral system, all sections may not get representation through ballots. Certain communities which have very miniscule presence and cannot be represented through ballots can be given room in the Council. Besides, intellectuals who cannot make it to the Lower House can be given representation in the Upper House. In a nutshell, the Legislative Council can be described as the voice of the voiceless,” Shyam said.
However, senior journalist GC Shekhar has a different view. He told The New Indian Express, “It will cause unnecessary expenditure to the state exchequer. There are graduate constituencies in the legislative council. Decades ago, the education level was low and hence such arrangements were needed. Now, almost every house has a graduate and it has become redundant. The claim that intellectuals will find a place in this Council is not exactly correct as there have been many political appointees in it.”
He pointed out that the Legislative Assembly has been sitting for only around 100 days in a year and the Council would sit for even fewer days. “It will be a waste of public money. Those who could not be given party tickets in the Assembly elections, those who could not win the elections etc. may find a place in the Council. It is not going to add significantly to the governance and in the functioning of the overall legislature. For the past 35 years, everything went well in Tamil Nadu without the Council. So, there is no need for reviving this,” Shekhar added.
On May 14, 1986, a resolution seeking to abolish the Council was moved successfully in the Legislative Assembly. At that time, DMK president M Karunanidhi was the Leader of the Opposition in the Council. The Tamil Nadu Legislative Council (Abolition) Bill, 1986 was passed by both houses of the Parliament and received the assent of the President on 30 August 30, 1986 and the abolition of the Council came into effect from November 1, 1986.
Since then, the DMK has been making it an electoral promise almost in all manifestos and so far made three unsuccessful attempts during the 1989-91, 1996-2001 and 2006-11 regimes of the party. In the last attempt made in 2010, the Bill relating to the revival of the Council was passed by the Both Houses of Parliament on May 5 and 6, 2010 respectively and the President’s assent was notified in Tamil Nadu government gazette on May 20, 2010. After this, when the work for forming the Council was going on, elections were held and the AIADMK assumed office following which the revival of the Council was repealed through a Bill.