We Deserve Better Governance in Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu is a peace loving rich southern state of India. The last year has been disastrous for this wonderful state. The new government was elected on 19th May 2016 and sworn in on 23rd May 2016. The Chief Minister of the State J. Jayalalitha fell ill on 22nd Sep, 2016 and she passed away on 5th Dec 2016. Since then, Tamil Nadu has been in a state of political turmoil and its citizens are suffering due to a complete lack of governance.

India is an aspiring country and a growing economy. Tamil Nadu is the second largest economy in India. According to the India Today magazine’s state rankings in 2016, Tamil Nadu is the overall most improved state. The cream decides to leave to the US and other countries. However in the last decade or so, speaking to a lot of college grads and young aspiring workforce, I have found that a good portion of them prefer to stay in India.

The State has seen two Chief Ministers since the death of the former chief minister J. Jayalalitha. She got elected as a Chief Minister when I was in my 6th Grade and the class was jubilant with a big admiration for her. The current political class would like to take forward her legacy. However, I wonder what is the legacy they would like to take forward.

In any country, whenever a political vacuum arises, there will be a power struggle to fill that vacuum.  Once elected to power, the goal should be to serve the people and not amass wealth.  However, there is a conflict of interest in every deal that happens in the state irrespective of parties, there is corruption at every level.

CBI raids are carried out by the Government of India every other week based on who they like/dislike. A country can progress only when the laws of the land are the same for every citizen. Freedom of speech is curtailed if raids and arrests are done to threaten or coerce the opposition for political reasons.

We deserve better governance. I firmly believe the best way for India to progress is education. We have seen wonders happen in our country because of widespread education and a whole new economy was built in the last two decades. We need to make sure that this is spread to every citizen of the land. Sometimes I feel guilty that we have been one of the lucky ones to have been educated and everyone in the state deserves this luck.