Soon after taking over the reins as Chief Minister, M K Stalin, who in his twitter account, instead of identifying himself as CM after his name, called himself as of DRAVIDIAN STOCK. Is he not an Indian or a Tamilian for that matter? The word DRAVIDIAN has left many baffled. It was quite unexpected of a CM.
Not even a month has gone by. Ministers in his hand- picked cabinet have began to go wayward. Harsh exchanges followed when the Finance Minister PTR Thiagarajan spat venom on the FREE TAMILNADU TEMPLES MOVEMENT (nonsense is the word he used), a brainchild of Satguru Jaggi Vasudev. Not stopping at that, he cast aspersions on the Satguru’s Isha yoga centre and hinted that he was hell bent on getting the Satguru prosecuted. But a sudden change happened on May 19. The Finance Minister mumbled something to the effect that he would better concentrate on Corona issues than to pull up the Isha Yoga head. Why the sudden change in his tone? It is said that Smt Durga Stalin seemed to have had a hand in quietening the Finance Minister, lest her husband’s position (got after years of her temple visits and prayers) is not jeopardised. The real thorn in the FM’s side is that the fact of the his holding the OCI card (Overseas Citizen of India) surfaced in the social media. (An OCI holder is inelgible to contest elections).
The Education Department Secretaries of all the states were called by the Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokriyal for a virtual meeting on May 17. A letter was sent by the TN Education Minister Anbil Mahesh that it would be appropriate only if the Education Department Minister participates along with officials from the department, for such a high level meeting. It is worthwhile to note that this meeting was to deliberate on the furtherance of the CBSE exams postponed owing to covid situation, online education and work around the NEP. He also added that the existing state TN Govt is now willing to put forth their views on NEP and other issues, which they vehemently opposed in 2020. The real issue is that, when they pointed out suggestions to the central govt it was not taken into consideration which also entails the opposing of the three language policy. Possibly, the State Minister indicated the shape that Centre-State relations might take.
In the most recent incident, the who is who of the Trichy district administration, which included the collector Divyadarshini, Corporation Commissioner Subramanian and police Commissioner Arun, were asked to attend along with Rotary officials to deliberate on ways to curb the Corona menace in the District. The invite was from the Education Minister Anbil Mahesh. The venue in fact triggered a controversy: it was the DMK party office near Chathiram Bus stand. It was unprecedented. Such official meetings are conducted at Government offices and not in the party office. It has also been asked how can a Collector set a precedent by attending such meetings at party office when she had the choice to avoid or refuse? Will henceforth official meetings of all ministers be conducted at party offices? Just imagine!
Do these incidents point to the inadequacies, incompetence, inexperience of the top officials to run the administration of their departments on even keel? When the start is not good enough, how the five years that follow are going to be is the big question.
The ten-year wait to claim a perch at power, probably has confounded the ruling DMK, as evident from an unscrupulous head start. The Ministers’ demeanour is bound to cost them dearly. It is a wait and watch scenario.