CHENNAI: A day after the election results indicated a victory for the DMK, the Chittaranjan Salai residence of the DMK president M K Stalin in Chennai bustled with activity with officials arriving to discuss the Covid-19 situation. There was hardly any time for Stalin to savour his victory.
He confessed to family and friends that the crown on his head was a “crown of thorns” and not one of flowers. The emotions that the first-time chief minister was experiencing remains hidden behind the mask as he completes 100 days at Fort St George.
The poor fiscal status saw the chief minister prioritising welfare schemes and resorting to austerity. A fine balance of continuity and disruption has been the hallmark of Stalin’s three-month rule. If Amma Unavagams and HR&CE temples continue to roll out dishes for the needy and poor, a tender worth Rs 120 crore was cancelled to rid any suggestion of corruption in a contract for Greater Chennai Corporation. A dream team of international economists was constituted to set right the economy even as his rivals dubbed it a move to gain optics. For now, the 68-year-old chief minister has set his goal to make Tamil Nadu a $1 trillion economy by 2030 and inked deals worth Rs 17,141 crore with investors.
Criticism from rivals that the students had to appear for NEET despite a poll promise to do away with it has been a cause for embarrassment for the Stalin government. But it decided to introduce a bill to extend the 7.5% quota to other professional courses to steer the course of debate away from NEET. The previous Edappadi K Palaniswami government had announced 7.5% quota in medical admissions to government school students ahead of the assembly election.
“The chief minister works relentlessly, holds reviews with us and officials frequently. He asks us to do field visits, study and rectify problems. Unlike our late leader’s tenure which was like free flow of water in the river with no big challenges, our CM has many and he is handling them well,” municipal administration minister K N Nehru said. The younger, less experienced ministers have a long way to go. The party has sought to shed its anti-Hindu image with an energetic P K Sekar Babu helming the HR&CE.
On another front, Centre-state relations, where the government is drawing heavy fire, Stalin, having learnt lessons from his father, has sought to balance it with confrontation and cooperation. While he meets Prime Minister Narendra Modi as protocol warrants, his minister decries GST at the council meeting as ‘rubber stamp authority’. He urged the eight coastal states to oppose the draft Indian Ports Bill, 2021 that reduces state’s autonomy. On river water disputes, the belligerent former Karnataka CM and BJP leader, B S Yeddiyurappa, has been appropriately warned. Stalin’s analogy: The DMK and its government is an elephant that none could tame – the four legs reflect the principles of social justice, self-respect, linguistic and ethnic affinity and state’s autonomy.
The politics of hostility has taken a back seat, instead ‘inclusive’ governance is making headlines. A clarion call to all parties to work together for Covid management ensured that AIADMK and BJP MLAs took part in the government’s review meetings. Former AIADMK minister C Vijayabaskar was included in the government’s Covid-19 management panel. Stalin’s enthusiasm to reach out to the opponents was widely acknowledged, especially by the PMK. In what may change political equations in the future, Stalin issued an order to implement the contentious 10% vanniyar quota.
The bureaucracy tries hard to keep up with the chief minister’s pace. He visits the secretariat twice a day and sits for long hours, travels to districts and reserves Sundays for his Kolathur constituency for the ‘Ungal Thoguthiyil Muthalamaichar’ scheme.
The first lap looks promising for Stalin, who is now earning praise as people’s chief minister even if it means obliging a middle-aged woman by stopping his car on the highway, removing his mask and showing her his face. What next? The electoral promises of cracking down on alleged corruption by the previous AIADMK regime will pick up pace. The going will be tough with the state’s finances still weak. As things stand now, tough decisions are expected like levying more taxes even as Stalin allowed a White Paper to speak ahead of budget.
