M.K. Stalin steps up attack on Centre; announces high-level panel for Tamil Nadu’s autonomy

Amid the run-ins with Governor R.N. Ravi, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin has fired yet another salvo against the Union government. In a significant move, Stalin had constituted a high-level panel to study the Centre-state relations and recommend measures to strengthen India’s federal structure.

 

The panel chaired by former Supreme Court judge Justice Kurian Joseph, with members including retired IAS officer Ashok Vardhan Shetty and former state planning commission vice chairman M. Naganathan, will submit their interim report in January 2026 and the final report within two years.

 

Making this announcement in the assembly, Stalin said that it has become imperative to take a relook into the Centre-state relationship at a time when the Union government was only interested in snatching the powers of the state governments. The final report with recommendations will be submitted in two years, Stalin told the state assembly. “The committee will study, as per the law, to transfer those subjects that went from the state list to the concurrent list,” he said, while pointing out how the National Eligibility-cum- Entrance Test (NEET) is affecting the students as it is out of the purview of states.

 

Citing yet another example about the imposition of Hindi on students of Tamil Nadu through the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, he pointed out how the Union government has centralised the powers by dictating to states on subjects like education and health. He also urged that education should be made an exclusive subject of the states, calling for the reversal of the 42nd constitutional amendment which moved it from the state list to the concurrent list.

 

“Only the mother knows what the baby needs. We can’t allow someone from Delhi to dictate what our baby needs,” Stalin said while speaking in the assembly. Stating that the committee will review the constitutional provisions, existing laws and state government orders related to the Centre-state relations, he said the committee will also examine how the concurrent list had snatched away the powers of the state in several subjects.

India