After 10 Years of Ramachandran's Rule, Tamil Nadu Presents a Very Sorry Picture _ Special Report - India Today

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News Magazine Special Report

July 31, 1987| UPDATED14:52 IST

The 10 years of MGR's rule have seen:The institutionalisation of corruptionin the state;Lack-lustre economic growth, withthe state income growing at less thanthe national average of 3.5 per cent;Low per capita availability of essentialarticles;

Among the country's most controversial - and, at one time, the most colourful - politicalpersonalities is M.G. Ramachandran, the erstwhile Tamil screen hero who burst upon TamilNadu's political stage a decade ago, with all the fervour of a messiah. Now a sick andisolated man, MGR celebrated his tenth anniversary of chief ministership last month.Despite a yawning chasm separating promise from performance, he continues to hold theadulation of the masses. To assess the MGR decade, Senior Editor Prabhu Chawla andSenior Correspondent S.H. Venkatramani spoke to politicians, intellectuals, civil servantsand ordinary people. Their report:

Last month, Tamil Nadu's seriously-ailing andidiosyncratic Chief Minister M.G. Ramachandrancompleted a decade of his reign over the state. But therewas little to celebrate. The region, which still exults in thevibrant memories of the legendary Cholas and Pandyaswho excelled in military exploits, learning and trade andcommerce, was suddenly left, it seemed, without amodern legend.

When he strode upon the political stage 10 years ago, MGR seemed to be a character rightout of the history books - a sage-poet-politician in the mould of the famous Alvars andNayanars - who would fashion a new era for a region that prided itself as the crucible ofindigenous Indian culture. But, a decade later, the only legacy of MGR's one-man dynasty ismindless 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 holdover the masses. Because of his welfare schemes - the public dole - they look up to him asthe fount of all municence.

But the MGR welfare formula, just about the only thing his government is now associatedwith and which informs its very style and functioning, has proved simply a disastrous short -term palliative in which efcient administration and economic development have beensacriced at the altar of largesse.

That hardly appeared to be the case when MGRcaptured power on the promise of eliminatingcorruption, ghting Brahminism and idolworship, ensuring speedy development and anopen government, and opposing the CentralGovernment and its language policy.

But the only thing that MGR provided in the

Tamil Nadu: A decade of decayAfter 10 years of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.G. Ramachandran's controversial rule,this southern state presents a very sorry picture of industrial stagnation, atrophiedpolitics and institutional decline. A detailed report.

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No change in the percentage ofpopulation living below the povertyline;No progress on the critical water andpower fronts;Emergence of a highly individualisticand centralised administration;Repressive laws to shackle both thepress and the im industry;Growing tension between theexecutive and the judiciary;Total demoralisation of bureaucracy;A bewildering array of welfareschemes, highly populist in character,but basically short-term palliatives;andDilution of Dravidian culture andtoning down of anti-Hindi sentiments.

ensuing years, apart from state charity, wasstability. But it is the stability of stagnation. Thestate has become MGR's personal efdom andevery institution - the judiciary, the bureaucracy,the press - has been threatened or cajoled intoobsequious submission to the Tamil satrap.

The 120-odd MLAs and 25 MPs of MGR'sAIADMK have been reduced to non-entities.Cabinet meetings are as rare as the visits thechief minister makes to his ofce. Ten yearsago, MGR's absence from his ofce for a daymade news. Now, his visits to his secretariatofce make headlines. Six years ago, partyfunctionaries and petitioners had easy access toMGR. Now, with a huge security wall aroundMGR, the already tenuous link between theleader and his partymen and the public has justabout snapped.

And the state is descending into chaos anddecay. Almost every minister, including the chief minister himself, is involved in allegationsof widespread corruption. The number of people living below the poverty line is unchangedat 50 per cent. The growth of state income has been less than the national average of 3.5percent 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 thetwo major problems of power shortage and water famine. Last year, State IndustriesMinister 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 coastalvillages. He sent his recommendations to MGR, and that was the end of the matter. The lehasn't moved.

Then, four years ago, amidst great fanfare, MGR signed the Telugu-Ganga agreement withhis Andhra Pradesh counterpart N.T. Rama Rao. The scheme was crucial for Tamil Nadu asit envisaged the transportation of Krishna waters to cater to the desperate needs of Madrascity. It was originally expected to cost Rs 600 crore, of which Tamil Nadu was expected topay Rs 180 crore to Andhra Pradesh for works to be carried out within its territorialboundaries.

In addition, the MGR Government was expected to arrange to dig canals from Tamil Nadu'sborder with Andhra Pradesh to the city. But a dispute over payments for the project betweenthe two states halted the work. To resolve the issue, NTR visited Madras to confer withMGR. But MGR failed to attend the scheduled meeting at the secretariat. His gimmickyanswer to the water famine in the city, which smacked ominously of a if-they-don't-have-bread-let-them-eat-cakes attitude, was the announcement of a scheme of giving plastickudams (water containers) to families living below the poverty line.

MGR'S Government, if it can be called that, is difcult toassess according to known administrative yardsticks, forit works according to the whims and dictates of the chiefminister. As a former top police ofcial put it: "All MGR'sdecisions are sudden and illogical. He will keep lespending indenitely, and suddenly, come out with 50decisions. But he has a way of carrying them all through,and he will always appeal to the poor rural people."

As a result, the bureaucracy is languishing with virtually no work and no decision-makingpowers. No secretary can leave to attend ofcial meetings outside Madras without MGR'spermission. In the past two years, Tamil Nadu has not been represented in over a dozen

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The state has become MGR's personalefdom and every institution - thejudiciary, the bureaucracy and the press -has been threatened or cajoled intoobsequious submission to the overlord.

important conferences in New Delhi because none of the invited secretaries could getapproval in time.

The civil service has, therefore, totally withdrawn from participating in the administration ofthe state. It no longer makes preparations of the notes and agenda even for cabinetmeetings, if they are held. And MGR appears to take a special delight in being rude toofcers. Often, he will not even offer a chair to an ofcer he has summoned. Until 1977, onlyone IAS ofcer had resigned from service in the state. Since MGR took over, more than 20have 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. Centreshave 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. Morethan 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 supplieshighly subsidised power to farmers. Education up to the ten-plus-two stage is also free: anannual 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 hasneglected the development of industry and its consequent employment generation.

The people, however, view the welfare schemes as a religious benediction. And in thisatmosphere, the AIADMK's traditional antipathy for religious institutions has declined to thepoint 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, whenthe 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 himselftonsured at Tirupati as an offer of thanks for MGR's recovery. The chief minister himselfregularly visits the Mookambige temple near Mangalore, and he is also credited withbuilding golden chariots for 12 temples in the state.

When he rst came to power, MGR vowed toexterminate the twin devils of religion andcorruption. Now, with the recrudescence ofreligion, corruption has also made a come-back. Says Cho Ramaswamy, satirist andeditor of the fortnightly Tughlak: "Corruptionhas been institutionalised under MGR's rule. Apart from all the scandals which have beenwritten about, the chief minister has recently begun gifting wads of currency notes to thebride and bridegroom of every wedding he is invited to preside over. You should rememberthat MGR once said he had no money to pay his income tax."

Corruption has become part and parcel of MGR's Government now," observes DMKAssistant General Secretary Nanchil K. Manoharan, the former number two man in MGR's1977 cabinet before he returned to the DMK in 1980. "During his rst term of ofce, MGRwas okay. But after he got re-elected in 1980, transport permits, admissions into medicaland engineering colleges - everything was turned into a money spinner," he adds.

The early scandals began with allegations that rectied spirits worth crores were diverted toother sources with the knowledge of the Government. Commissions of inquiry wereappointed by the Centre but their operations were stayed by the courts.



The MGR welfare formula, themain reason for his continuingpopularity, has been at the expenseof efcient administration andeconomic development in thestate.

Then the state Government-owned Poompuhar Shipping Corporation, set up in 1975 totransport coal by sea to the state's thermal power plants, signed a deal with a Bulgarian rmin March 1979, for the purchase of three ships for $13 million each. The corporation wentback on the contract after Karunanidhi alleged that a Rs 4-crore kickback was involved inthe deal.

Later, MGR himself gured in allegations of kickbacks in the awarding of arrack bottling andblending licences to highly ineligible parties. Former chief minister Karunanidhi made ablatant charge in the Assembly that he had received bribes up to Rs 25 crore a year for thearrack licences. When MGR challenged Kaunanidhi to repeat the charge in public, hepromptly obliged. The chief minister then sued Karunanidhi for criminal and civil defamationbut withdrew the case after seven months.

Along with corruption came repression against those who sought to expose it. The statepolice has been shamelessly used in harassing the media, political opponents and evennonconforming judges. It was MGR who pioneered the anti-scurrility long before formerBihar 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 giventhe 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 wasrepealed after repeated protests. But before it was put into the statute book, MGR issued anorder 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 thepress. Recently, the state Government has passed an Act authorising pre-censorship on anyadvertisement material or lms depicting politicians as corrupt.

Tamil Nadu is also the only state in the country with aGoondas Act, under which district collectors canpreventively detain, for a year, anyone who theysuspect can create law and order and otherproblems. 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, hasreleased nearly 200 detenus under the Act. The fact that many of these petitions become infructuous as the detenu's term ends before the court considers his petition for nal disposalshows 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 inthe state. He has systematically eliminated all threats from within his own party by clippingthe wings of future contenders like Jayalalitha and Veerappan, and the Congress(I) hasbeen unable to produce an alternative.

Even though the AIADMK candidates for the 1985 elections were chosen when MGR wasundergoing 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 andthe cross-currents of the southern state politics, where governments have changed in thepast decade.

MGR has uniquely demonstrated time and again that a dismal performance in ofce neednot have anything to do with a chief minister's hold over the masses. In 1977, he won 130 ofthe 200 seats contested by the AIADMK and secured 30.76 per cent of the total votespolled.



In 1980, share of votes polled rose to 38.74 per cent, but he won 129 of the 177 seatscontested. And MGR reached his pinnacle of popularity when a sympathy wave hit the statefollowing his illness. While he was in the US, the AIADMK won 133 seats of the 155 seatscontested, including the 12 Lok Sabha seats it fought.

Moreover, despite his providing Tamil Nadu an insular avour, the parochialism has notintensied into anti-Hindi sentiment. The anti-Hindi movement, which he had earlier madefull political use of, has almost faded. In fact, he ruthlessly suppressed the DMK-ledagitation and even created legislative history by getting almost half the DMK MLAs expelledfrom the house for burning the Constitution.

MGR presided over a lack-lustre, sleepy decade in which he used his charisma and welfareschemes as a soporic for the masses. There is little doubt among observers that thepotion 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 happenwhen 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 newlyawakened and rebellious electorate. Yet, the irony will remain that in the midst of the turmoilthat is surely ahead, MGR will be remembered not as a man who broke his promises to hispeople but as a giant who presided over a decade of dreamy stability.

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After 10 Years of Ramachandran's Rule, Tamil Nadu Presents a Very Sorry Picture _ Special Report - India Today