A BREAK WITH THE PAST

FIRST-TIME CHIEF MINISTER M.K. STALIN PROJECTS A REFRESHING FOCUS ON EFFICIENCY AND TRANSPARENT GOVERNANCE RATHER THAN POLITICAL EXPEDIENCY IN ADMINISTRATION

- Amarnath K. Menon

In Tamil Nadu, where politics and cinema blend easily, the 100th day of an inaugural is a special occasion. Ahead of that milestone in office, first-time chief minister M.K. Stalin is determined to demonstrate that his government is a break with the past five decades of Dravidian rule in the state. Stalin, 68, is only the third chief minister from the DMK (Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam), after his father M. Karunanidhi and C.N. Annadurai earlier. The seventh-term MLA has rich experience in both politics and administration, having been a minister and deputy chief minister as well as a proactive opposition leader during the regimes of the rival AIADMK (All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam).

With the DMK alliance’s commanding victory in the assembly election in April (159 of 234 seats), Stalin leads a stable government and has the opportunity to reimagine Tamil Nadu’s development, both in vision and scale. “Tamil Nadu should become the most attractive industrial destination in South Asia and provide human capital to the world. There should be no economic or social disparity here,” he said on July 9 while addressing the first virtual meeting of the newly constituted Chief Minister’s Economic Advisory Council (CMEAC). Stalin emphasised that Tamil Nadu was ready for comprehensive and swift change and had the potential to emerge as a model state in the country. Growth, he added, should not be restricted to economic prosperity but should also usher in societal reforms and educational advancement. The members of the CMEAC are Nobel laureate economist Esther Duflo of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan; Arvind Subramanian, former chief economic advisor to the Union government; development economist Jean Drèze; and former Union finance secretary S. Narayan.