Emerging from the shadows of his illustrious father M. Karunanidhi, who came to represent the DMK for nearly five decades in the post-Annadurai era, Chief Minister M.K. Stalin took over the reins of the Tamil Nadu government in May, inheriting a huge debt burden and an intense second wave of COVID-19, with promises to keep. The “Dravidian stock” leader also made heads turn with his choice of words to describe the Centre as the “Union government” (‘ Ondriya Arasu ’).
Contrary to apprehensions about whether the DMK government would be able to fulfil its populist electoral promises, it introduced free travel for women and transpersons on select bus routes and reduced the petrol price by ₹3 a litre, keeping its promise in part.
The government presented an exclusive agriculture budget, installed a real-time monitoring dashboard in the Chief Minister’s office, took steps to implement the ‘Chief Minister in Your Constituency’ scheme, besides posting young officers as Collectors and announcing more municipal corporations.
While the names of several government departments were rechristened, several boards and committees, hitherto defunct, were activated and more of them constituted. Many policies to guide the government have been released, or are being drafted. The constitution of the Chief Minister’s Economic Advisory Committee, including a Nobel laureate and a former Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, was a novel step to help the State devise plans to emerge from the pandemic-induced economic situation. In fact, the DMK government also implemented what the C. Rangarajan Committee suggested to the previous AIADMK government — Tamil Nadu Urban Employment Scheme.
The flooding of several areas in Chennai during November-December was a matter of concern though the government had its boots on the ground. The handling of the rescue operations in the aftermath of the IAF helicopter crash in Coonoor that killed Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat and 13 others came in for praise from the defence forces.
While the honeymoon period for the government has been extended, thanks to the internal differences in the AIADMK, which is yet to take on the rulers effectively, the real test for Mr. Stalin would be to prove himself in the long run. The DMK has to fulfil its other promises. Keeping corruption under check, evaluating Ministers, some of whose performance in and out of the Assembly has been lacklustre, and handling the demand for inducting his son Udhayanidhi in the Cabinet would be some of the tasks before him in 2022.
The long-pending issue of release of seven life convicts in the former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi assassination case also needs to be handled.
