4/7/2016

After10yearsofRamachandran'srule,TamilNadupresentsaverysorrypicture:SpecialReportIndiaToday
India

SUPPLEMENTS

News

Magazine

World

Videos

ARCHIVE

Photos

SPICE

Cricket

HOME

Movies

ASPIRE

Auto

Sports

WOMAN

Lifestyle

Tech

Education

Business

Cosmopolitan

SIMPLYDELHI

Special Report

Tamil Nadu: A decade of decay

After 10 years of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.G. Ramachandran's controversial rule,
this southern state presents a very sorry picture of industrial stagnation, atrophied
politics and institutional decline. A detailed report.
Prabhu Chawla and S.H. Venkatramani
July 31, 1987| UPDATED14:52 IST

A+ A-

Among the country's most controversial - and, at one time, the most colourful - political
personalities is M.G. Ramachandran, the erstwhile Tamil screen hero who burst upon Tamil
Nadu's political stage a decade ago, with all the fervour of a messiah. Now a sick and
isolated man, MGR celebrated his tenth anniversary of chief ministership last month.
Despite a yawning chasm separating promise from performance, he continues to hold the
adulation of the masses. To assess the MGR decade, Senior Editor Prabhu Chawla and
Senior Correspondent S.H. Venkatramani spoke to politicians, intellectuals, civil servants
and ordinary people. Their report:
Last month, Tamil Nadu's seriously-ailing and
idiosyncratic Chief Minister M.G. Ramachandran
completed a decade of his reign over the state. But there
was little to celebrate. The region, which still exults in the
vibrant memories of the legendary Cholas and Pandyas
who excelled in military exploits, learning and trade and
commerce, was suddenly left, it seemed, without a
modern legend.

May We Suggest
UN says 138,000 people
displaced in new ghting in
Darfur, Sudan

2 terrorists killed in ongoing

encounter in Kashmir's Shopian

Convicted of murder, man seeks

euthanasia for self and family

Bihar: Nitish Kumar's order for

total liquor ban faces criticism

More News

May we Recommend
The Kapil Sharma Show trailer: SRK, Kapil
Sharma entertain with their witty one-liners

When he strode upon the political stage 10 years ago, MGR seemed to be a character right
out of the history books - a sage-poet-politician in the mould of the famous Alvars and
Nayanars - who would fashion a new era for a region that prided itself as the crucible of
indigenous Indian culture. But, a decade later, the only legacy of MGR's one-man dynasty is
mindless autocracy and a trail of broken promises.
Analysts of the MGR decade - even the most vituperative critics - will readily admit that,
notwithstanding his glaring failures, the fur-capped chief minister still has an uncanny hold
over the masses. Because of his welfare schemes - the public dole - they look up to him as
the fount of all municence.
But the MGR welfare formula, just about the only thing his government is now associated
with and which informs its very style and functioning, has proved simply a disastrous short term palliative in which efcient administration and economic development have been
sacriced at the altar of largesse.
That hardly appeared to be the case when MGR
captured power on the promise of eliminating
corruption, ghting Brahminism and idol
worship, ensuring speedy development and an
open government, and opposing the Central
Government and its language policy.
But the only thing that MGR provided in the

The 10 years of MGR's rule have seen:

The institutionalisation of corruption
in the state;

10 controversial gures caught in the Panama

bind

Pratyusha Banerjee death: Friends reveal

shocking details

| Video | Priyanka suicide: Family alleges that

Priyanka was abused, releases images | India
Videos | - India Today
Pratyusha Banerjee commits suicide: Dolly
Bindra, Rakhi Sawant, Ratan Rajput spotted
outside Kokilaben Hospital
Actor Pratyusha Banerjee's last rites held,
friends and family bid nal farewell

Lack-lustre economic growth, with

the state income growing at less than
the national average of 3.5 per cent;

PromotedLinks byTaboola

Low per capita availability of essential

articles;

http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/after10yearsoframachandranruletamilnadupresentsaverysorrypicture/1/337294.html

1/6

4/7/2016

After10yearsofRamachandran'srule,TamilNadupresentsaverysorrypicture:SpecialReportIndiaToday

ensuing years, apart from state charity, was

stability. But it is the stability of stagnation. The
state has become MGR's personal efdom and
every institution - the judiciary, the bureaucracy,
the press - has been threatened or cajoled into
obsequious submission to the Tamil satrap.
The 120-odd MLAs and 25 MPs of MGR's
AIADMK have been reduced to non-entities.
Cabinet meetings are as rare as the visits the
chief minister makes to his ofce. Ten years
ago, MGR's absence from his ofce for a day
made news. Now, his visits to his secretariat
ofce make headlines. Six years ago, party
functionaries and petitioners had easy access to
MGR. Now, with a huge security wall around
MGR, the already tenuous link between the
leader and his partymen and the public has just
about snapped.

No change in the percentage of

population living below the poverty
line;
No progress on the critical water and
power fronts;
Emergence of a highly individualistic
and centralised administration;
Repressive laws to shackle both the
press and the im industry;
Growing tension between the
executive and the judiciary;
Total demoralisation of bureaucracy;
A bewildering array of welfare
schemes, highly populist in character,
but basically short-term palliatives;
and
Dilution of Dravidian culture and
toning down of anti-Hindi sentiments.

And the state is descending into chaos and

decay. Almost every minister, including the chief minister himself, is involved in allegations
of widespread corruption. The number of people living below the poverty line is unchanged
at 50 per cent. The growth of state income has been less than the national average of 3.5
percent as has the per capita availability of essential items, like water and electricity.
MGR's most abysmal failure has been his inability - and perhaps unwillingness - to tackle the
two major problems of power shortage and water famine. Last year, State Industries
Minister K. Rajaram visited the Hanover Industrial Fair and decided to import several one mega - watt power generating wind - mills, which could provided power to the coastal
villages. He sent his recommendations to MGR, and that was the end of the matter. The le
hasn't moved.
Then, four years ago, amidst great fanfare, MGR signed the Telugu-Ganga agreement with
his Andhra Pradesh counterpart N.T. Rama Rao. The scheme was crucial for Tamil Nadu as
it envisaged the transportation of Krishna waters to cater to the desperate needs of Madras
city. It was originally expected to cost Rs 600 crore, of which Tamil Nadu was expected to
pay Rs 180 crore to Andhra Pradesh for works to be carried out within its territorial
boundaries.
In addition, the MGR Government was expected to arrange to dig canals from Tamil Nadu's
border with Andhra Pradesh to the city. But a dispute over payments for the project between
the two states halted the work. To resolve the issue, NTR visited Madras to confer with
MGR. But MGR failed to attend the scheduled meeting at the secretariat. His gimmicky
answer to the water famine in the city, which smacked ominously of a if-they-don't-havebread-let-them-eat-cakes attitude, was the announcement of a scheme of giving plastic
kudams (water containers) to families living below the poverty line.
MGR'S Government, if it can be called that, is difcult to
assess according to known administrative yardsticks, for
it works according to the whims and dictates of the chief
minister. As a former top police ofcial put it: "All MGR's
decisions are sudden and illogical. He will keep les
pending indenitely, and suddenly, come out with 50
decisions. But he has a way of carrying them all through,
and he will always appeal to the poor rural people."

Watch Right Now

Samjhauta, Malegaon blasts: Lt
Col Purohit claims he was
framed

LK Advani's wife Kamla Advani

passes away

Delhi hit-and-run case: Father of

minor booked for allowing son to
drive

Hyderabad: Mother kills baby

boy because she wanted a
daughter

More Videos

So Sorry
It's not Tamil Nadu, it's...Amma
Nadu

More Videos

Top Takes
Himani was killed over dowry,
alleges father and former BSP
neta

Meet the Snake Lady of

Maharashtra who saved over
50k reptiles

Dalit woman brutally thrashed by

men in Gujarat

HRD team meets agitating

students as tension prevails in
NIT

As a result, the bureaucracy is languishing with virtually no work and no decision-making

powers. No secretary can leave to attend ofcial meetings outside Madras without MGR's
permission. In the past two years, Tamil Nadu has not been represented in over a dozen
http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/after10yearsoframachandranruletamilnadupresentsaverysorrypicture/1/337294.html

More Videos

2/6

4/7/2016

After10yearsofRamachandran'srule,TamilNadupresentsaverysorrypicture:SpecialReportIndiaToday

important conferences in New Delhi because none of the invited secretaries could get
approval in time.
The civil service has, therefore, totally withdrawn from participating in the administration of
the state. It no longer makes preparations of the notes and agenda even for cabinet
meetings, if they are held. And MGR appears to take a special delight in being rude to
ofcers. Often, he will not even offer a chair to an ofcer he has summoned. Until 1977, only
one IAS ofcer had resigned from service in the state. Since MGR took over, more than 20
have resigned.
But the main reason that MGR continues to rest easy on his laurels which, by all logic,
should have become a crown of thorns, is the success of his welfare schemes. Centres
have been set up where parents and children can avail of a free meal a day.

Over half the state's population now depends, directly or indirectly, on state charity. More
than three - fourths of the state budget is spent on subsidies: free noon meals, textbooks,
tooth - powder and, to a lesser extent, rural housing. In addition, the Government supplies
highly subsidised power to farmers. Education up to the ten-plus-two stage is also free: an
annual cost of Rs 450 crore.
But these schemes have been at the cost of the infrastructural development of the state.
Though two lakh people are employed in the noon meal scheme, the state Government has
neglected the development of industry and its consequent employment generation.
The people, however, view the welfare schemes as a religious benediction. And in this
atmosphere, the AIADMK's traditional antipathy for religious institutions has declined to the
point of apostasy. Under the late E.V. Ramaswamy Naicker, its motto was: 'There is no God,
No, no, not at all.' Under the late former chief minister C.N. Annadurai, the motto became:
'There is only one caste, and one God.
Under MGR, however, religious fervour reached an untrammeled acceptance. Once, when
the chief minister returned from a trip to the US where he had gone for medical treatment. S.
Raghavanandam, former state housing minister and AIADMK general secretary, got himself
tonsured at Tirupati as an offer of thanks for MGR's recovery. The chief minister himself
regularly visits the Mookambige temple near Mangalore, and he is also credited with
building golden chariots for 12 temples in the state.
When he rst came to power, MGR vowed to
The state has become MGR's personal
exterminate the twin devils of religion and
efdom and every institution - the
corruption. Now, with the recrudescence of
judiciary, the bureaucracy and the press religion, corruption has also made a comehas been threatened or cajoled into
back. Says Cho Ramaswamy, satirist and
obsequious submission to the overlord.
editor of the fortnightly Tughlak: "Corruption
has been institutionalised under MGR's rule. Apart from all the scandals which have been
written about, the chief minister has recently begun gifting wads of currency notes to the
bride and bridegroom of every wedding he is invited to preside over. You should remember
that MGR once said he had no money to pay his income tax."
Corruption has become part and parcel of MGR's Government now," observes DMK
Assistant General Secretary Nanchil K. Manoharan, the former number two man in MGR's
1977 cabinet before he returned to the DMK in 1980. "During his rst term of ofce, MGR
was okay. But after he got re-elected in 1980, transport permits, admissions into medical
and engineering colleges - everything was turned into a money spinner," he adds.
The early scandals began with allegations that rectied spirits worth crores were diverted to
other sources with the knowledge of the Government. Commissions of inquiry were
appointed by the Centre but their operations were stayed by the courts.

http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/after10yearsoframachandranruletamilnadupresentsaverysorrypicture/1/337294.html

3/6

4/7/2016

After10yearsofRamachandran'srule,TamilNadupresentsaverysorrypicture:SpecialReportIndiaToday

Then the state Government-owned Poompuhar Shipping Corporation, set up in 1975 to

transport coal by sea to the state's thermal power plants, signed a deal with a Bulgarian rm
in March 1979, for the purchase of three ships for $13 million each. The corporation went
back on the contract after Karunanidhi alleged that a Rs 4-crore kickback was involved in
the deal.
Later, MGR himself gured in allegations of kickbacks in the awarding of arrack bottling and
blending licences to highly ineligible parties. Former chief minister Karunanidhi made a
blatant charge in the Assembly that he had received bribes up to Rs 25 crore a year for the
arrack licences. When MGR challenged Kaunanidhi to repeat the charge in public, he
promptly obliged. The chief minister then sued Karunanidhi for criminal and civil defamation
but withdrew the case after seven months.
Along with corruption came repression against those who sought to expose it. The state
police has been shamelessly used in harassing the media, political opponents and even
nonconforming judges. It was MGR who pioneered the anti-scurrility long before former
Bihar chief minister Jagannath Mishra even began thinking about it.
He introduced a law in September 1981 making the publication of grossly obscene,
indecent, or scurrilous matter a cognizable and non-bailable offence. And the person given
the responsibility for making such a highly subjective judgement - a police inspector.
This law had all the potential of being used to harass independent journalists and was
repealed after repeated protests. But before it was put into the statute book, MGR issued an
order in September 1980 proscribing any government ofcial from divulging information,
even of a purely routine nature. Under this, irrigation storage statistics cannot be revealed.
Only the chief minister or ministers - with his approval - can give out information to the
press. Recently, the state Government has passed an Act authorising pre-censorship on any
advertisement material or lms depicting politicians as corrupt.
The MGR welfare formula, the
main reason for his continuing
popularity, has been at the expense
of efcient administration and
economic development in the
state.

Tamil Nadu is also the only state in the country with a

Goondas Act, under which district collectors can
preventively detain, for a year, anyone who they
suspect can create law and order and other
problems. Disclosed a police source: "On an average,
the police have been detaining 50 people every
month under this Act." The Madras High Court, acting on habeas corpus petitions, has
released nearly 200 detenus under the Act. The fact that many of these petitions become in
fructuous as the detenu's term ends before the court considers his petition for nal disposal
shows the extent of arbitrary detention.
The irony of the MGR decade is that notwithstanding repression, corruption, nepotism,
maladministration, and religious obscurantism, he continues to be the only popular leader in
the state. He has systematically eliminated all threats from within his own party by clipping
the wings of future contenders like Jayalalitha and Veerappan, and the Congress(I) has
been unable to produce an alternative.
Even though the AIADMK candidates for the 1985 elections were chosen when MGR was
undergoing treatment in the US, none of them has the capacity or charisma to replace him.
He has also succeeded in insulating the state from the mainstream of national politics and
the cross-currents of the southern state politics, where governments have changed in the
past decade.
MGR has uniquely demonstrated time and again that a dismal performance in ofce need
not have anything to do with a chief minister's hold over the masses. In 1977, he won 130 of
the 200 seats contested by the AIADMK and secured 30.76 per cent of the total votes
polled.

http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/after10yearsoframachandranruletamilnadupresentsaverysorrypicture/1/337294.html

4/6

4/7/2016

After10yearsofRamachandran'srule,TamilNadupresentsaverysorrypicture:SpecialReportIndiaToday

In 1980, share of votes polled rose to 38.74 per cent, but he won 129 of the 177 seats
contested. And MGR reached his pinnacle of popularity when a sympathy wave hit the state
following his illness. While he was in the US, the AIADMK won 133 seats of the 155 seats
contested, including the 12 Lok Sabha seats it fought.
Moreover, despite his providing Tamil Nadu an insular avour, the parochialism has not
intensied into anti-Hindi sentiment. The anti-Hindi movement, which he had earlier made
full political use of, has almost faded. In fact, he ruthlessly suppressed the DMK-led
agitation and even created legislative history by getting almost half the DMK MLAs expelled
from the house for burning the Constitution.
MGR presided over a lack-lustre, sleepy decade in which he used his charisma and welfare
schemes as a soporic for the masses. There is little doubt among observers that the
potion will soon wear out and that the people will awaken to the real demands of water,
electricity, efcient governance, jobs and development. But that will most likely happen
when MGR, already ailing and now barely able to speak, is no more.
He will leave behind, for his successors, the burdensome task of dealing with a newly
awakened and rebellious electorate. Yet, the irony will remain that in the midst of the turmoil
that is surely ahead, MGR will be remembered not as a man who broke his promises to his
people but as a giant who presided over a decade of dreamy stability.

For more news from India Today, follow us on Twitter @indiatoday and on Facebook at
facebook.com/IndiaToday
For news and videos in Hindi, go to AajTak.in.
.
.

20

SHARES

DO YOU
LIKE THIS STORY?

WHATISYOURREACTION?

0%

0%

0%

0%

0%
POWEREDBY

FROMINDIATODAYGROUP

byTaboola

Shoaib Akhtar, 38, marries 20-year-old from Haripur

Hrithik Roshan's ex-wife Sussanne Khan opens up about second marriage rumours

Raai Laxmi calls her relationship with MS Dhoni a 'scar'

NEWS

TV

MAGAZINE

http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/after10yearsoframachandranruletamilnadupresentsaverysorrypicture/1/337294.html

Search

5/6

4/7/2016

After10yearsofRamachandran'srule,TamilNadupresentsaverysorrypicture:SpecialReportIndiaToday

Give a rating:
Latest

Leave a comment

ME

What is your opinion?

Name

Post

Email

Talk of the Town

68

WhatsApp is now probably illegal in

India

16

Is India for Hindus only? Bombay High

Court asks BJP-led Nagpur civic body

13

Manmohan Singh attacks PM Modi in

Assam rally: Action matters more than
words

As Modi govt celebrates a billion

Aadhaar cards, a 2014 tweet haunts

Excise duty on jewellery is govts

assassination attempt on
businessmen: Rahul Gandhi

3 days before IPL, court questions

why water should be wasted to
prepare cricket pitches

#Discover

NEWS

INDIA

WORLD

PHOTOS

CRICKET

MOVIES

AUTO

SPORTS

LIFESTYLE

TECH

EDUCATION BUSINESS

SITEMAP

Copyright 2016 Living Media India Limited. For reprint rights: Syndications Today.

http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/after10yearsoframachandranruletamilnadupresentsaverysorrypicture/1/337294.html

6/6