Amidst speculation that the Union Cabinet could take a stern stand including invoking Article 356 in Tamil Nadu, Congress on Tuesday said that the situation in the state is not such as to warrant imposition of President's rule.
After meeting a delegation of AIADMK MPs in New Delhi, Congress spokesman S Jaipal Reddy said "we took this stand day before yesterday (Sunday) and it is not a new stand".
Ridiculing recommendation made by the NDA fact finding team that the State could be put under Central rule, he said "whenever any NDA delegation visits some states, it will recommend President's Rule. The NDA team had earlier recommended President's rule in Bihar and West Bengal." "Law Minister Arun Jaitley seems to know only one article, that is Article 356", Reddy said adding that breakdown of Constitutional machinery would mean a lot more.
Asked to comment on the treatment meted out to the two Union Ministers Murasoli Maran and T R Baalu by the state government, he said that though both sides were presenting their versions, the fact remained that whatever might have happened, all of them did not add up to invocation of Article 356. Bureau Report