NEW DELHI, Sept. 6 -- With the massive majority of the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) in the Parliament and the Union government's increasing tendency to unilaterally bring in sweeping legislation and issue executive orders with adverse consequences for the states' finances, the question of state autonomy has assumed special importance. With the victory of DMK in Tamil Nadu and the Trinamool Congress in West Bengal and the increasing clout of the Shiv Sena, NCP and the Congress combine in Maharashtra, the demand for state autonomy will only increase in the coming days.
In 1969 Chief Minister Annadurai, the founder of the Dravida Munnettra Kazhagam (Dravida Progressive Federation) and the then Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, wrote, "If by being...