One year in office and Karunanidhi badly needs to put more pluses in the ledger

N Sathiya Moorthy in Madras

Communal violence in the western districts, resumed caste clashes in the south, strained relations with its electoral ally and the narrowest of wins in the sole by-election held in this period -- not exactly the kind of milestones that give the Muthuvel Karunanidhi-headed Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam government in Madras much to cheer about.

If this were not enough, there are long queues outside most ration shops. And to relieve the tedium of waiting for supplies that are both irregular and over-priced, the makkal can discuss the public relations fiasco of the Telugu-Ganga waters issue, the Cauvery waters dispute with neighbouring Karnataka, and the 'Ramar Pillai episode' wherein the state government, as interim sponsor, ended up cutting a sorry figure.

The list seems long and endless. And yet, if the Karunanidhi government's first year in office is greeted with muted, rather than overt, criticism, it has the total non-performance of the predecessor AIADMK government headed by Jayalalitha Jayaram to thank.

The DMK government has, in the year gone by, restored a sense of governance among the bureaucrats and people alike, and removed the feeling that the state was slowly, but surely, slipping into anarchy. Karunanidhi's biggest plus, thus, is that he has ensured that there is a government in the first place. Whether or not it works, and if it does then how it works, will perhaps form subject for debate soon -- for now, though, the bulk of people seem content with the knowledge that there is now a government, where, earlier, there was just Jayalalitha.

The government was very quick to respond when, on three occasions, unseasonal and torrential monsoons lashed the state. For the first time in five years, people saw their elected representatives, especially ministers, wading through the slush and the slime, and ensuring that relief both in cash and kind was quick in coming.

If the DMK rulers spent most of their first year in office chasing the shadows of Jayalalitha and her ministerial colleagues, raiding their houses for ill-gotten wealth and putting them in prison pending trial, it was not without reason and justification. For this was the main plank on which the DMK-TMC combine fought last year's elections, the plank on which the voters returned them with an overwhelming majority. Therefore, the criticism that the DMK government has concentrated on the previous government's misdeeds does not wash - because that was what the DMK-TMC combine promised to do in the first place.

To Karunanidhi should also go the credit of ordering elections to the local bodies in the state after 22 long years -- again, as promised in the DMK's manifesto. The elections, held as promised, ensured the distribution and decentralisation of power to the grassroots-level, which a whole generation of electors and elected had not known.

True, the panchayat and municipality levels function as lethargically as ever -- but the state government, by nearly doubling their total outlay to Rs 11 billion in the 1997-'98 budget, has given the local bodies much-needed fiscal muscle.

On the minus side, the state government has failed to come down on the goondas who made life miserable for the common man during the Jayalalitha regime. And the recurrent caste clashes in the southern districts have also left a bad taste in the mouth.

Again, it is worth pointing out that the caste clashes have their genesis during the last months of the Jayalalitha regime, and the initial rupture was caused by the desecration of a statue of Muthuramalinga Thevar, allegedly by harijans. But the more recent naming of a new transport corporation after a dalit leader has not helped matters.

The caste riots have, more than anything else, exposed the weakness of the law and order machinery, with even the DIG being subjected to the indignity of a personal attack. The state intelligence agencies, what is more, have been shown to have no clue as to what is happening in the villages -- and that is a situation fraught with danger.

The intelligence machinery failed, yet again, when communal clashes broke out in Coimbatore and neighbouring districts in western Tamil Nadu, following the slaying of Muslim fundamentalist leader 'Palani' Baba, earlier this year. Karunanidhi did his credit no good by making statements that were pro-Muslim, and anti-Hindu at a crucial stage.

Strangely, the usually media-savvy Karunanidhi also got entangled in a series of avoidable controversies that badly affected his public image. When it was near-certain that his son and DMK nominee M K Stalin would win the first direct mayoral elections in Madras last October, Karunanidhi needlessly tried to hasten the supply of the Telugu Ganga waters from the Krishna river in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh -- in a year when rain was bountiful.

The seepages and leakages in the canals caused by hasty work under strict deadlines apart, there were also charges that the first waters that flowed from the Telugu Gana system was not from the Krishna, but only rain water that had collected en route. The work on sealing the seepage is still on.

Likewise, Karunanidhi also jumped the gun when a section of the Union government tried to make political capital out of the 'Ramar Pillai episode', involving a Tamil Nadu villager developing herbal petrol. The villager's claim has since proved untenable, and the TN government did itself no favours by hastily announcing its sponsorship and backing to Pillai.

What kept the picture from being uniformly black were the media accolades consequent on raids against Jayalalitha, her erstwhile "sister" Shashikala, and almost all members of the previous AIADMK government.

Politically, the situation remains fluid. With Jayalalitha's AIADMK forging an alliance with the MDMK and, in fact, putting up a creditable performance in the Pudukottai assembly by-poll, the DMK now finds that it needs its electoral ally, the TMC at the state level just as much as the latter banks on DMK support at the Centre. Thus, recent indications of feuding between the two allies causes concern to political watchers in the state.

The DMK regime can take credit for having provided the right climate for industrial investment in the state. With two TN leaders, P Chidambaram and 'Murasoli' Maran, respectively holding the all-important finance and industry portfolios at the Centre, the Karunandihi leadership has been pushing hard on the industrialisation front.

The political stability, promised by the DMK's strength in the assembly, and the restoration of law and order to a great extent -- especially when contrasted with the previous regime when the media, lawyers and even the chief election commissioner were targeted for government-sponsored assaults -- has removed some of the reservations of potential investors.

Perhaps the biggest plus is that the Karunanidhi government has not, after 365 days in office, landed itself in any unsavoury controversies. There are no corruption charges against the ministers or other politicians belonging to the ruling party. And even where members of the ruling party were involved in criminal cases, as in the killing of a woman corporator in Madurai, the law has been allowed to take its course. And this is a huge plus, when viewed against the misdeeds of the previous regime.

Which is a fair enough balance sheet to end the first year of office -- but Karunanidhi, all said and done, badly needs to put more pluses in the ledger before another year is out.