- Muralitharan Kasi Viswanathan
- BBC Tamil
20 minutes ago
Votes cast in the April 6, 2021 elections to the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly were counted on May 2. In which DMK. The coalition captured a majority of seats. தி.மு.க. The alliance won a total of 159 seats in the DMK. Captured only 133 seats.
At a function held at the Governor’s House on May 7, the DMK Chairman M.K. The Stalin-led cabinet took office.
While one year is not enough to assess a government that has been in power for five years, one can certainly observe the signal to point out the direction that government will go in the next four years.
Ten years later, the DMK The party celebrated the rule with great joy. But Tamil Nadu was not in the mood to celebrate like that at that time. The corona had begun to spread very vigorously. Health experts have warned that the second wave could be worse than the first wave and cause more serious deaths.
Thus, there was a need to implement curfew immediately. The tax losses caused by the previous curfew and the economic losses of the people stood before the government. At the same time, the state’s financial situation is not good enough.
Beyond all this, it was not known to what extent the ideologically opposite central government would cooperate with the state government.
After taking office, he reduced the price of Avin Paul’s by three rupees a liter, announced free travel for women on government buses and a corona relief fund of 2,000 rupees for family cardholders. The announcement of free travel on buses for women was very well received.
But the biggest challenge to the regime awaited immediately.
The first challenge posed by Corona
தி.மு.க. The corona spread peaked when he came to power. Over the next two weeks the number of people suffering from daily corona infection touched 36 thousand. That means the number of people infected with the corona infection on May 21 alone was 36,184. The number of people in treatment was 2 lakh 74 thousand. Due to this the beds in government hospitals across the state were completely filled. In many hospitals, patients died in ambulances.
Ambulances were waiting in long queues at the Rajaji Government General Hospital in Chennai. Meanwhile another challenge arose. There was a severe shortage of oxygen throughout the state. The government ordered a complete curfew on the 24th.
It must be said that the state government has handled this challenge of people’s lives remarkably well. The measures taken by the government to address the oxygen shortage also received significant attention.
Nevertheless, the medical crisis caused by the corona epidemic and the economic loss caused by the curfew posed the greatest challenge to the new government.
Thus, when the state government presented its first budget, it did not make any significant announcements other than reducing the price of petrol by Rs 3 per liter. But the way the state government has handled the finances over the past year has been largely uncritical.
But the monsoon intensified in Tamil Nadu even before the first budget was tabled and relaxed. The monsoon, which started prematurely, intensified in many parts of the state. Rainwater drainage systems, which were already in a normal state, could not withstand this monsoon. Many parts of the capital Chennai were submerged.
Once it rained, it rained again before recovering from it and left Chennai reeling. Although the people were severely affected by this, the ministers and chief ministers who stood and worked in the field received attention.
Apart from these, the UPA has taken a number of steps in the direction of state rights, such as continuing to take action on the issue of NEET exemption, opposition to the new education policy, and removal of the governorship of universities. The actions of the Stalin-led government have been welcomed. In the case of the release of the seven convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, the letter to the President has been praised by the party for continuing to focus on the issue despite criticisms and for allowing those involved to remain in jail continuously.
Moreover, within a few days of taking office, non-Brahmins were appointed as priests in many temples in order to carry out the court ruling that made all castes priests. Despite the struggles of Hindu organizations, the government was firm in its decision and received praise.
Similarly, the formation of a repressive group comprising Raghuram Rajan, Esther Dufflow and Shandrey to streamline the state’s economy was also a notable move.
The DMK has consistently focused on attracting investments to the state and preventing religious riots or untoward incidents. The government is getting compliments.
With all the temples in Tamil Nadu under the supervision of the Department of Hindu Religious Affairs, the DMK has launched a campaign to free them from that surveillance. It had started a few years before coming to power. தி.மு.க. While the campaign was expected to intensify after coming to power, the campaign against the sector has been limited by accelerating the activities of the Treasury Department.
“For a government, it is not enough just to act; it has to look like it is functioning. In that sense, the DMK is better. The current chief minister, MK Stalin, is much more advanced than he was two years ago. He appears to be self-confident and in control of everything
The state government is in constant conflict with the central government over education, economic sharing and power sharing. This struggle is very important not only for Tamil Nadu but also for India. Only by fighting can rights be retained. Can regain lost rights. M.K. is doing very well in that direction. Stalin.
Also, he keeps experts in the field near him and listens to their advice. He creates a working circle for those advisors. In the last two years M.K. These are the most important changes that Stalin has made, “said Ramu Manivannan, a former professor and professor of political and public administration at the University of Chennai.
But, not without criticism.
The severe power shortage in Tamil Nadu between 2006 and 2011 was a blow to the then ruling DMK. Caused a very bad name for the state. The power outage was said to be one of the reasons for the party’s defeat in 2011. Nevertheless, the sporadic power outage in the months since he came to power and now the summer, has caused little dissatisfaction.
Although the reasons for the power outage have been put forward by the government from time to time, the power outage at night has caused severe dissatisfaction.
As a next step, the death toll in police custody over the past few days has provoked strong reactions among human rights activists. Edappadi K. The DMK has raised the issue of father and son being beaten to death at the police station in Satan’s pool during the Palanitschami-led regime. Criticized on a very large scale. Condemned the issue to the extent of creating a protest across the state.
But now that Vignesh, a young man in Chennai, and Thangamani in Thiruvannamalai have been killed in police custody, the state government’s handling of them has come under criticism. There are voices calling for the Chief Minister to be held accountable for such abuses by the police under the Chief Minister.
How is the DMK going to handle political protests?
The AIADMK is currently the main opposition party in the Tamil Nadu Assembly. However, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) continues to make headlines in the news. The BJP has been actively campaigning for the state to continue to raise religious issues and to raise issues that the government should respond to once in a few days.
Apart from this, R.N. After Ravi’s arrival, the DMK Many government bills remain pending approval by the president. Only the NEET bill has been sent to the President after much struggle.
In this situation, in the future, the BJP and the state governor DMK. How to deal with it will be the biggest challenge for the state.
Chasing promises
Before the election, the DMK It had made many promises in the published election manifesto and ambitious document. In particular, the head of household was entitled to a monthly allowance of 1,000 rupees, a reduction of 100 rupees per gas cylinder, a reduction of 5 rupees in petrol and 4 rupees in diesel.
Opposition parties continue to question the reduction in diesel prices and the gas subsidy despite the three rupee reduction in petrol prices. Although he mentioned that giving a thousand rupees a month to the heads of families was part of his ten-year ambition, they did not support the DMK. Opposition parties have stated they will not run in the by-elections.
Apart from this, the Chief Minister’s attempt to nominate Udayanithi Stalin, the son of the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu and a legislator from Chepauk constituency, as the next successor within the party and the release of most of the films released by Udayanithi Stalin’s cinema company Red Giant Movies in Tamil has come under heavy criticism.
Ramu Manivannan said, “There are reports that the chief minister is projecting his son within the party. Such actions will do away with democracy outside the party for the next 20 years. Moreover, the main source of revenue for the state will depend on Tasmag. The most important question will be how the state government will recover from it.”
It has won two local elections, one parliamentary election and one assembly election in a row. Stalin-led DMK The party’s biggest victory in the last rural local elections can be attributed to the people’s assessment of this regime. However, the BJP Waiting like a snake in the eye, the DMK will be in power for the next four years. The future of the party lies in what the government is going to do.
BBC Tamil on social media: