CM Vijay, the BJP and the disbanded Kurian Joseph committee | Powertrip #170

Welcome to this week’s Powertrip, a political newsletter curated exclusively for subscribers of The News Minute and Newslaundry. This week’s edition is by Dhanya Rajendran and Shabbir Ahmed.In today’s edition, we dig into the TVK government’s decision to disband the Justice Kurian Joseph committee, examining what may have prompted the move and what the committee’s unfinished work on Centre-State relations could mean for the future. We spoke to two sources who worked closely with the committee and two government sources.Powertrip is a newsletter that senior political reporters of TNM put together every week..Inside TrackExclusive stories, for your eyes onlyBeyond the official reasonThe formal justification given by the Tamil Nadu government for disbanding the Justice Kurian Joseph committee on Centre-State relations is that it is a non-statutory body and that its functions will henceforth be looked after by the Law Commission.However, the decision has come under considerable criticism, with an editorial in The Hindu even describing it as a move without any rationale.The high-level committee was formed in April 2025 by the former DMK government to examine and review provisions of the Constitution of India, laws and orders that bear upon Union-State relations. The committee submitted its first report on February 18, 2026, just before Tamil Nadu went to the polls.So why did the government decide to disband the committee? Was it spooked by any potentially controversial positions the committee might have taken in the second part of its report, which was due by May 2027?We spoke to people who worked closely with the committee. Two of them pointed out that there was nothing specific in the committee’s proposed work or recommendations that would have set off alarm bells in the TVK government over the possibility of antagonising the BJP.One source said the second part was intended to examine finance, administration, devolution and the environment, among other issues. The committee had interviewed several people, including former Finance Secretary Subash Chandra Garg, who has been in the news in recent months for criticising the government and especially the way it interprets data.The source said the second report was expected to examine some contentious issues, such as centrally sponsored schemes and whether they were necessary at all. These schemes have been heavily criticised for centralising finances and depriving states of agency in implementing them. However, the source added that the suggestions received by the committee were not radically new and had long been part of the debate.The second source said that while the committee was planning to release two more reports, the new TVK government had made no enquiries about their proposed contents. The source believes that if the government had not even sought to know what the reports would contain, their contents could not have been the reason for disbanding the committee. The source also pointed out that Justice Kurian Joseph was not perceived as belonging to either side of the political spectrum and that the committee therefore did not carry any preconceived political baggage that might have invited displeasure from the BJP. However, the source said that the presence of Dr M Naganathan, a former bureaucrat perceived to be close to the DMK, could have irked the TVK government. The Hindu has reported that Naganathan resigned from the committee a few months ago.This is an element that a source in the Tamil Nadu government did not deny. The source said that while the current government did not have any apprehensions about Justice Kurien, it was unhappy with the presence of former bureaucrat Ashok Varadhan Shetty in the committee. The TVK believes Shetty is close to the DMK’s top leadership.The officer added that there was a communication breakdown between the government and the high-level committee. “We never received any communication from the high-level committee on their proposed plans; no one reached out to us.”Meanwhile, the two sources who worked with the committee told us they believe the decision to disband was taken primarily because the TVK government did not want to continue committees set up by the DMK and earn the BJP’s ire in any manner.One of the sources said that since the committee was constituted under the Department of Public Affairs, which falls under the Chief Minister’s portfolio and functions under the direct control of the Chief Secretary, a cabinet minister with close links to the BJP may have prevailed upon the Chief Minister to approve its disbanding.A senior TVK leader said that though the Union-State relationship was an important issue that needs to be studied, the previous DMK government’s agenda in appointing this committee was political, and the new government would not trust recommendations put forward by them. This was an out-and-out political decision, he said. “If late AIADMK supremo Jayalalithaa was alive, she would have taken the same decision.”Everyone we spoke to believes that this marks the end of the study into Union-State relations. The Law Commission will have neither a specific deadline nor a clear mandate to take the study forward. There are concerns that, without a dedicated committee and a defined timeline, the exercise will simply fall through the cracks.Zero HourA political story of public importanceDemonetisation: A disaster in 2016, a resounding failure 10 years on.The exercise achieved none of its objectives but had lasting consequences. 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