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New Indian Express
4 days ago
- Politics
- New Indian Express
DMK launches ‘Oraniyil Tamil Nadu' enrolment drive with eye on 2026 assembly polls
MADURAI: Chief Minister and DMK president M.K. Stalin on Sunday announced a special cadre enrolment drive titled 'Oraniyil Tamil Nadu', setting a two-month target for party functionaries to enrol new members. A special resolution to this effect was adopted at the DMK's 7th General Council meeting held in Uthangudi. While moving the resolution, Stalin said each booth committee member must enrol at least 30% of the voters within their booth limits. District secretaries and other functionaries must ensure the target is achieved within two months, he emphasised. Stating that at least one person in every household benefits from a welfare scheme under the Dravidian model government which follows the principle of 'everything for everyone' Stalin urged all families in Tamil Nadu to unite under one umbrella in the run-up to the 2026 Assembly election. The aim, he said, is to take forward the DMK's efforts to protect state rights, language, and dignity. He also added that he would personally interact with party functionaries to review the progress of the enrolment drive.
The Hindu
5 days ago
- Business
- The Hindu
Digital Revenue Card will be launched on November 1: Minister K. Rajan
State's Digital Revenue Card will be officially launched on November 1, said Revenue Minister K. Rajan while inaugurating the Kurkanchery Smart Village Office on Saturday. The rollout will begin in villages where digital resurvey has already been completed. The new card, resembling an ATM card, will have a unique 10-digit digital number and come embedded with a QR code and chip, allowing citizens to easily access land, building, and liability-related services from village offices. 'The card will streamline access to all services provided by the Revenue department. Most revenue offices are now digitised, and over 21 certificates are currently available online,' the Minister said. He also highlighted the 'Ente Bhoomi' (My Land) portal, which integrates 14 data points from the Registration, Revenue, and Survey departments, offering users a comprehensive view of land-related information. 'This initiative is creating a transformational shift in how land data is accessed in the state,' he added. She inaugurated the new Smart Village Office at Kurkanchery, which was built at a cost of ₹50 lakh under the state government's 2022–23 Plan Scheme. Mayor M.K. Varghese presided over the function.
India Today
25-05-2025
- Politics
- India Today
Battleground Tamil Nadu: Why Stalin's DMK appears to hold the pole position
When M.K. Stalin took oath as Tamil Nadu chief minister on May 7, 2021, he introduced himself—perhaps for the first time in his long public life—as 'Muthuvel Karunanidhi Stalin'. Four years later, that nod to legacy seems not to have been empty just a year left for the next assembly election, not only is the DMK (Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam) on solid footing, Stalin can be said to have spawned a force-field all his own in Indian calculated mix of welfare, symbolism and federal resistance takes his imprint beyond the horizons of local administration and realpolitik. With that larger political-ideological aura on Stalin, to hazard a guess, Tamil Nadu looks all sewn Opposition, for one, lacks a coherent argument. The iffy AIADMK (All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam)-BJP dalliance comes with too much drag. An aggregated vote-share of 41 per cent in 2024, even topping the DMK alliance's in about 13 Lok Sabha seats, prompted their patch-up after a 2023 divorce. But Tamil politics doesn't run on simple math. The AIADMK's votes could be said to have been vouchsafed to it because it had split with the BJP. As the 2026 poll nears, it can't risk opposing the DMK's stands on themes like delimitation or language. In a political culture deeply allergic to northern impositions, swimming with the BJP on these issues is tantamount to courting wildcard, of course, is actor Vijay. His political start-up, the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK), has drawn early enthusiasts—particularly among the youth—but is electorally untested. And the DMK has its own sunrise sector in Udhayanidhi Stalin, which partly cancels out its of all, there's Stalin's helmsmanship. 'Tamil Nadu led the way on federalism,' says Salma, writer and joint secretary, DMK media wing. 'It was here that a strong, clear voice for federal unity was first raised—our CM brought national attention to it, creating awareness and solidarity across other states.'That fed its USP: the heroic profile of a party that offers sharp resistance to the BJP-led Centre, on issues such as NEET (national medical entrance), 'imposition' of Hindi, governor's interference, casting the DMK as a movement still in motion. Seen against that, what are the odds of a TVK slicing off enough votes to allow the AIADMK-BJP to ambush the DMK? Longer than Stalin's full name. Subscribe to India Today MagazineMust Watch
Time of India
13-05-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
Who and what failed the backward sections of the society
The declaration of the NDA government to include the caste-based enumeration in the upcoming census has enormously charged the political atmosphere of this country. Soon after the decision, political parties across India rushed to take credit for it. Given the above, this article seeks to explore the reasons behind the backwardness of the backward sections of the society (SCs, STs, and OBCs) in the post-independent India, and who should be principally held responsible for it. When India gained independence, it had the opportunity to choose the path and nature of the economic development. There were a few alternatives to decide on the course of its development. Two prominent, although contrasting alternatives proposed were: Bombay Plan and the Gandhian Plan. The Bombay plan was recommended by a group of industrialists and technocrats from Bombay, aiming to double the per capita income within 15 years of its implementation. The Gandhian Plan suggested by Shriman Narayan was based on the Gandhian ideas of development, focusing on self-sufficiency, the primary sector, the labour-intensive sector, decentralisation, and trusteeship. The modified version of the Bombay Plan, with the Nehruvian establishments, however, triumphed over other plans. The Gandhian principles of development thus got undermined contrary to the wish of M.K. Gandhi, who said (AICC, January 25, 1942), 'once I am gone, Jawahar will do what I am doing now. Then he will speak my language too.' Nehruvian economic policy and backward communities As an outcome, the benefit of the 17 years of Nehruvian path of development was confined only to a few wealthy, resourceful, and educated, but it remained far more disappointing for the vast majority. Ashwini Saith (1988) explained this phenomenon as the industrialisation-led development strategies immensely failed in terms of the reduction in the level as well as the intensity of the endemic poverty. The above failure could be explained in terms of overemphasis on industry over agriculture, capital-intensive heavy industries over labour-intensive small-scale industries, higher education over primary education, and & 'Urban Bias' over rural. Precisely, the failure was a result of over-reliance on the 'trickle-down' of the big projects, industries, educational institutions, and settlements. The trickle-down, on the other hand, is explained by Stiglitz (2002) as an 'article of faith' which realises only with certain preconditions. The Nehruvian economic policy, based on the Western ideas of development, severely ignored the economic potential of the primary sector (agriculture, forestry, and animal husbandry) and labour-intensive industry (village and rural industries), and ultimately the people depending on it. As a result, the farmers, agricultural labourers, craftsmen, and the petty producers failed to increase their status and remained economically deprived. In addition to the above, the neglect of primary education kept the poor villagers illiterate and educationally deprived. Since a disproportionate majority of the illiterate farmers, landless labourers, and craftsmen belong to the backward section of society, they were excluded from the opportunity of social and economic mobility. The Nehruvian model of development further worked as a double-edged sword, particularly for the Scheduled Tribes. On the one hand, it kept them poor and illiterate; on the other hand, it displaced them for various development projects without proper rehabilitation. They are uprooted in large numbers from their land and traditional sources of livelihood. Pandit Nehru once told the displaced villagers of the Hirakud Dam project in 1948, 'if you are to suffer, you should suffer in the interest of the country.' Backwardness post-Nehru Regime Realising the above failure of economic policy in uplifting the poor, Indira Gandhi declared Garibi Hatao Programmes, and many Poverty Alleviation Programmes (PAPs) were initiated subsequently. The PAPs may not have any dent on poverty, nevertheless, successfully turned out to be major sources of corruption and commission, so much so that Rajiv Gandhi admitted, for every rupee spent, only 15 paise reaches the beneficiary. The ultimate sufferers are the backward section of the society, which comprises the significant majority of the poor. Other than corruption, economic inefficiency, fiscal mismanagement, and the lack of budgetary discipline reached its peak. In 1991, the situation escalated to a severe economic crisis, and India was forced to accept Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs) suggested by the World Bank/IMF to come out of it. The premature acceptance of Liberalisation, Privatisation and Globalisation (LPG) policy became the norm of economic governance, resulting in far-reaching social and economic consequences. It created opportunities (for some), but created risks for the majority, not well prepared for it. Deepak Nayyar (2000) remarked this phenomenon as; globalisation benefits only a small section of the asset-owners, profit-earners, rentiers, educated, and those with professional, managerial, or technical skills. The losers, however, are the vast majority of the assetless, wage-earners, debtors, the uneducated and the semiskilled or the unskilled. The resulting impact was a growing concentration of wealth and economic inequality. Since a majority of the backward section of society falls in the losers category, they are further excluded from the benefits created by globalisation. The SAPs thus result in economic exclusion of the backward section of society. Congress and the Backward Communities The economic sufferings of the backward sections have a direct and intricate relationship with the failure of the economic policy followed during the above-mentioned leadership. As a result, the farmers, the agricultural labourers, the craftsmen and the forest-dwellers failed to empower themselves all throughout the larger period of post-independent India. The Congress party, more particularly led by the Gandhi-Nehru family, has played a decisive role in keeping them backward despite. The backwardness of backward communities and the 'Gandhi-Nehru family' is not limited only to the opposition of caste based reservation by Pandit Nehru, not conducting caste-census by Rajiv Gandhi or the failure to act on Kaka Kelkar/Mandal Commission report, but also reasons beyond that. Four deserve mention here: economic marginalisation of the backward section, failure to provide effective social protection, exposing them to market risks, and educational deprivation of the backward communities. Because there is a close relationship between education and upward mobility, and similarly between income and education, the backward sections remain deprived as income depends on occupation, and education depends on availability and accessibility to it. The lower level of income and the lack of availability of educational institutions prevented the backward sections from economic and educational empowerment. Once they fail to empower themselves, they are failed to be seen in the public offices where human capital and educational achievements become a ticket for entry. The invisibility of the backward section from the public offices or from the 'Halwa Ceremony' is thus a question of lack of their empowerment, the consequence of the failure of 'economic democracy'. Some may call the invisibility of SCs, STs and OBCs from public offices a 'Chakravyuh', or may try to take enormous credit for the recently declare caste-census, albeit doing the least for their empowerment; it may, however, be reduced to rhetoric, and not social justice. Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email Disclaimer Views expressed above are the author's own.
The Hindu
09-05-2025
- The Hindu
Everyone should cooperate to make Namakkal a drug-free district, says Collector
District Collector S. Uma on Friday urged the public to cooperate to make Namakkal, a drug-free district. The Collector participated in the awareness meeting for women's self-help group members on drug prevention and prohibition. Speaking at the meeting, the Collector said that Chief Minister M.K. Stalin is making various efforts to make the society prosperous and safe by completely eradicating the sale and use of drugs. The main reason for selecting women in this programme is that if a programme is presented to women, they can take it home, village, and district-wide. Women are capable of doing such awareness drive. 'Women can be fully involved in drug prevention and put an end to such evil acts,' Ms. Uma added. Explaining the evils of drugs that cause harm to the society and family, the Collector said that if a person uses drugs, they engage in various criminal activities by losing their self consciousness and it turns into a social disorder. It affects the society at various levels like a chain link. This results in unsafe situations for children. Due to the continuous efforts of the district administration and the police department, inspections are conducted in various places and the sale of drugs has been banned. However, drug sellers adopt different ways for selling banned items. So, the public should inform the district administration if there is sale of drugs in their areas and the details of the informants will be kept confidential. The public can download the Drug Free Tamil Nadu app and report through it, the Collector added. Additional Superintendent of Police Dhanarasu, Project Director (Mahalir Thittam), and officials from various departments participated.
