Perhaps it should not come as a surprise but Tamil Nadu, which at one time sent many babus to Delhi has seen a sharp drop in the past five years. Being a technie beats being a babu, it would seem... (Image: A woman carrying a 20-kg rice bag at a ration shop in Erode in Tamil Nadu. Fulfilling a major poll promise, the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, Mr M. Karunanidhi, launched the Rs 2 per kg PDS rice scheme on his 84th birthday in 2006) _____________________
by Pushpa Iyengar
Father Of All Birthdays
(May 27, Chennai, Sri Lanka Guardian) If Azhagiri made a big deal of his birthday and Stalin saw Chennai painted red on his, can't CM M Karunanidhi have the father of all birthdays? Sure he can and he's going to: on June 3, when he starts his 85th year. He's definitely the oldest chief minister in this country with West Bengal's Jyoti Basu hanging up his boots some years ago.
At first he declared he'd rather have a quiet birthday out of town because of his "mental and physical health" and appealed to his cadres to leave him alone. Incidentally, the last time he left town he wrote Tholkappiya Poonga, an explanatory work on the difficult grammar test Tholkappiyam
"Of late, even as I wish to work longer and longer for the people, I have also started to yearn that I should die with the satisfaction of having been friendly with everybody," he said rather poignantly in the assembly recently. He also said "betrayal" by friends (he clarified it was not the CPI-M) had made him sad.
Perhaps the subsequent stint in hospital -- Sri Ramachandra Medical College Hospital in Porur where he underwent traction for severe neck and back pain -- caused the change of heart because DMK veteran and minister K Anbazhagan announced this week that a big bash would drive the Kalaignar's blues away. "With happiness writ on our face, let us turn up in large numbers to greet him on his birthday," he said adding that cadres would get a boost from the "emotionally-surcharged" situation and the youth would learn about Kalaignar and the history of the DMK. Stalin took his cue and has announced elaborate celebrations all over the state.
In 2003, Kalaignar had asked his cadre to observe austerity because his nephew Murasoli Maran was "battling for life" and his son M K Azhagiri had been "implicated" in a murder case. But the cadres did not listen. When he turned 80 the following year, all stops were pulled out and even national leaders like V P Singh turned up to wish him. In 2005, 2006 and 2007, his birthday was marked by AIADMK-bashing and announcement of populist schemes.
This year there is likely to be more of the same.
After all he was not left alone despite his hospitalization. He had a steady stream of visitors including his estranged grand nephews Kalanidhi and brother Dayanidhi Maran and Tughlaq editor (who is believed to be close to Amma) Cho Ramaswamy. So, it's business as usual and on June 3 and the DMK cadre better think of innovative ways to greet the octogenarian.
Party Pooper
To do a bit of number crunching, Karunanidhi is on his sixth term as CM and has just finished two years in this term. But PMK founder S Ramadoss refused to let the Kalaigar bask in his glory. "If you ask me to give marks for this government, I will say it has not got pass marks," he said cattily. Ramadoss and Karunanidhi are constantly involved in a game of cat and mouse. Ramadoss criticizes everything Karunanidhi says and does and the latter swipes back. For instance, when Ramadoss got on his moral high horse, Karunanidhi taunted him by saying that the former could bring in prohibition when the PMK comes to power, which the party cannot do on its own till kingdom come. Recently Ramadoss produced packets of ganja saying his partymen had procured them from near a school in Ice House in Triplicane. And the dance goes on.
The Swamy Connection
What is common between the TR Baalu episode and the Poongothai Aladi Aruna case? Janata Party leader Subramaniam Swamy. In the first instance, he wrote to the PM saying Baalu was arm-twisting oil companies to make gas allocations to the companies run by his sons.
In the second case, Swamy produced the tape which had social welfare minister Poongothai requesting Director of vigilance and anti-corruption S K Upadhyay to "go easy" on an assistant engineer in the electricity department, hauled in for corruption, because he was a cousin.
Baalu brazened it out and both the centre and state government allowed his spin about doing it for the shareholders go unchallenged. But Poongothai and Upadhyay have ended up paying for their sins. Poongothai has been dropped from the cabinet while Upadhyay has been shunted. The question is why was Upadhyay recording phone conversations on his laptop since 2005? This is what he told the P Shanmugham commission, which is probing the phone tapping episode: "I have not done anything unlawfully. I recorded only my conversations." The question also is who leaked this and the earlier conversation that Chief Secretary L K Tripathy had with Upadhyay about the probe into the Kodanadu estate which Jayalalitha owns.
Being A Technie Beats Being A Babu
Perhaps it should not come as a surprise but TN, which at one time sent many babus to Delhi has seen a sharp drop in the past five years. 31,173 candidates applied and 16,323 appeared for the prelims in 2004. The following year 28,471 applied and 15,620 took the exams. In 2006, 24,514 applied and 13,168 appeared for the exam while in 2007, 18,934 applied and 9514 wrote the prelims. This year only 17,956 have applied.
Prof E Balaguruswamy, member Union Public Service Commission, attributes it to abundant employment in TN as compared to the BIMARU states where IAS is a big thing.
But D Shankar, director of Shankar IAS Academy, says that while only a dozen candidates from TN made the grade in the 90s, last year 41 made it and this year, 79 have made it. What is also noteworthy is that rural Tamil Nadu is making the cut. Says R Indumathi, who is from Uthukottai and sat for the prelims this year: "Due to the availability of wide choices, city students are under heavy pressure to settle down quickly. So after a couple of failed attempts, instead of wasting the prime years of their life on an elusive dream, they get into IT or other sunrise sectors like pharma, banking or retail."
But persistence pays as K Jaiganesh from Vinavamangalam near Ambur found when he got the 156th rank after six failed attempts. Interestingly, Saiganesh worked as a waiter for the last 8 months and says, "It's been a struggle all through." Another youth from rural TN, Vinod Seshan from Thandalai village in Villipuram has done the state proud after standing third.
- Sri Lanka Guardian
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