Vijay's six-month report card: From box office to government office

ملخص مفصل

Six months after storming into Fort St George promising change, Vijay confronts crime, administrative controversies, nervous allies and the stubborn habits of Tamil Nadu politics. The honeymoon is over. The harder business of government has begun.

Six months is enough time for a government to discover that winning an election and running a State are two different occupations. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay came to Fort St George promising change, clean administration and a break from the familiar habits of Dravidian politics.

He inherited an experienced bureaucracy, a demanding electorate, a formidable Opposition and an overflowing calendar of public expectations.

Six months later, the promises remain, but they have acquired companions: law-and-order controversies, administrative embarrassments, anxious legislators, restless allies and some awkward questions about political consistency. None of this proves that the experiment has failed. It does establish that the honeymoon has encountered the working week.

The election supplied the mandate. The Secretariat supplied the fine print. And the fine print is beginning to make its presence felt. Vijay has closed liquor outlets, ordered corruption investigations, announced reforms and celebrated two Assembly by-election victories.

His meetings with Rahul Gandhi and Narendra Modi also displayed an ability to negotiate political relationships across national divides. But the first six months have brought a sterner examination. Tamil Nadu voted for a change of government. It is now entitled to ask how much governance itself has changed.

Deepavali brought its customary procession of crackers, cinema crowds and overflowing liquor counters. It also brought a disturbing succession of murders. Media reports counted 13 killings on the festival day and 17 over two days, while the police disputed those figures and cited eight under their own classification. The difference in counting methods deserves clarification, but the controversy soon acquired a distinctly political flavour.

Minister A. Rajmohan responded by citing murders during previous Deepavalis, including six the preceding year and eleven the year before.

Vijay convened an emergency police review.

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