New Delhi & Chennai, July 3 :    New Delhi & Chennai, July 3:  Jayalalitha Jayaram, gritting her teeth, blinked around noon. Hours later, so did the Centre. After flexing its muscles on imposing President's rule in 'errant' Tamil Nadu, the Vajpayee government tonight fought shy of even issuing constitutional directives to the state. Instead, it served a mere 'warning' to the government to rectify the 'legal violations' that have taken place since the Friday night arrest of former chief minister M. Karunanidhi and the two Union ministers and punish the police officials 'guilty' of committing excesses. The home ministry will draft the administrative directive and set a deadline for its compliance. Delhi was keen to avert a showdown with Jayalalitha on the eve of Pervez Musharraf's visit. A Centre-state face-off was the last thing Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee would have wanted in the run-up to the summit. The DMK is clearly not happy with the Centre's mild warning. General secretary K. Anbazhagan and executive member Aladi Aruna refused to comment on the decision. Maran is still in hospital and is not likely to get out before tomorrow. Baalu, who was in Vellore jail, has been released. Karunanidhi did not apply for bail today. The climbdown, which follows the NDA recommendation for Article 356, was apparently the result of a trade-off between the Centre and the state: charges were dropped against Cabinet members Murasoli Maran and T.R. Baalu and, in return, Jayalalitha was spared the stick. Shortly after C. Rangarajan took over as acting Governor this morning, the chief minister told him that the charges against the Central ministers were being withdrawn. An ADMK press statement issued in Chennai said it was at the intervention of the Prime Minister's Office that the charges were being dropped. But, it added, the decision was made not for lack of evidence against the ministers, but to maintain a 'cordial relationship' between the state and the Centre. But Delhi, realising the implications of the statement, which suggested that the Prime Minister had himself intervened to get his ministers off the hook, claimed late tonight that no such request was made to the state. The dropping of the charges after the Jayalalitha regime rubbished the idea yesterday and even early this morning means that the Central threat on Article 356 was perceived as real. Even as the chief minister and the new Governor were meeting privately in Raj Bhavan after the swearing-in, chief secretary B. Shankar was telling reporters: 'How can we just drop the charges? It will make us look frivolous.' For Jayalalitha, the Cabinet's warning and the informal instruction is an easier way out. But she will have to look for options to wriggle out of the 'order' to take action against police officials. In a statement today, the government made it clear that it had no intention of making a scapegoat of the police. 'The government of Tamil Nadu assured the police that due care will be taken to protect their interests and, therefore, the police should continue to discharge their duty conscientiously as always without fear or favour,' it said. The option that the government can now explore is to institute some kind of a probe. This would allow it to tell the Centre that it was in the process of taking action without actually victimising the police. Asked what the Centre's response would be if Jayalalitha ignored its directive, law minister Arun Jaitley said: 'We will consider the next step at that stage.' The home ministry's warning was based primarily on a report submitted by a four-member official team that visited Chennai over the weekend. It severely indicted the government and the police administration for 'violation of law, human rights, press freedom, right to legitimate political activity and federalism'. Jaitley said the Cabinet felt that immediate action was required to ensure the restoration of all constitutional guarantees such as democracy, freedom of press, principles of federalism, human rights and right to legitimate political activity. He, however, made it clear that it was 'not a directive under Articles 355 or 256', which are binding on the state. Even as the standoff ended on the release of the ministers, it appears that Karunanidhi will have to remain in jail till July 10. The DMK, clearly, is making political capital over the emotive issue of his incarceration. His daughters, Kanimozhi and Selvi, said their father was eating out of an aluminium plate and drinking out of an aluminium tumbler in a hot cell.