TAMIL NADU Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami was furious after a meeting with his ministers on April 16. He was not miffed by the inaction of his colleagues or the bureaucrats, but by opposition leader M.K. Stalin’s demand for an all-party meeting. “What advice could they give?” asked Palaniswami. “Are they doctors? The advice is given by medical experts and only if we follow their advice we can stop the spread of the contagion.”
At a time when most political leaders have chosen to remain quiet, Stalin has been quite vocal, regularly pointing out the inadequacies in the government’s measures taken to fight the pandemic. “Because of his experience as a leader and the concern he has for people, he is way ahead of the government,” said DMK legislator P.T.R.P. Thiagarajan. “The fundamental problem is that the ruling dispensation has not understood the complexity of the crisis as it is structurally inefficient.”
When the assembly session began on March 9, Stalin had asked the government to close educational institutions to prevent an outbreak. Palaniswami did not budge. A few days later, when the World Health Organization declared Covid-19 a pandemic, Stalin urged the government to suspend the assembly session. When the DMK’s deputy leader, Durai Murgan, demanded this in the assembly, Palaniswami mocked him. “Coronavirus affects the elderly. Durai Murugan is above 70 years. Maybe that is why he is worried,” he said. The DMK’s 100 MLAs boycotted the rest of the session.
“When the government is wrong or not going in the right direction, only an opposition leader can question the ruling dispensation,” said senior journalist S.P. Lakshmanan. “Not just Stalin, the other party leaders in Tamil Nadu also have been doing this.”
Stalin’s statements have been politically loaded, and the government has been forced to respond. He recently launched an initiative called Ondrinaivom Vaa (Come, let’s unite). “I feel this is to keep the party machinery live,” said political analyst Tharasu Shyam. The initiative is said to have been launched with the help of political strategist Prashant Kishor.
On the ground, however, it has not been that easy for the DMK. “Our district functionaries are stopped from distributing relief materials, saying they are violating the law,” said Thiagarajan. “But the AIADMK is allowed to work. The best example is the Amma canteens run by the government. Here the government allows the AIADMK to do the distribution.”
Stalin, for sure, is making himself heard. But it remains to be seen if his hard work will pay off in 2021, when the state goes to the assembly polls.