Making a strong pitch for more power for the States, PMK founder Ramadoss on Friday said the “Centre’s pride is defined by autonomous States” in the party’s manifesto presented here.
Dr. Ramadoss said the manifesto was not released as a formality. “This is a cry for getting back the rights that have been lost by Tamil Nadu and decentralisation of power,” he said, presenting the 94-page manifesto.
Suggesting that India, which is a Union of 29 States, should be more like United States of America, where the federal government had powers to decide on foreign policy, the Armed Forces and so on.
Parental consent
However, the manifesto makes a controversial reference to ‘parents’ consent’ to recognise marriage of girls below the age of 21, citing the environment of sexual abuse and harassment plaguing Tamil Nadu. The manifesto states that countries such as Singapore, Philippines, Japan and Brazil made parental consent a requirement to marry at a very young age. Similarly, girls who wished to marry under the age of 21 will require parental consent to prevent girls from being cheated and to safeguard family structure.
Listing the demands on a variety of subjects such as education, agriculture, State’s autonomy, governance, social justice and so on, Dr. Ramadoss said, “In 213 departments mentioned, the Centre’s decision in 152 departments is final. So, a State has been changed into a decorated ‘corporation’. This centralisation of power has affected the people of Tamil Nadu to a great extent.” While the slogan ‘Coalition in the Centre, self-rule in State’ has been made, there has not been any improvement.
“States don’t have much powers. A good example is jallikattu. We have been organising jallikattu, a small issue, it should have been decided by the State. Similarly, the State should decide on education,” he said.
Dr. Ramadoss made it clear that his party and the DMDK did not have any dififerences and he did not speak about politics when he met Mr. Vijayakant.