An open letter to Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay on Tamil Nadu's future

This article is authored by C Raj Kumar, Founding Vice Chancellor, OP Jindal Global University and President, World University Leaders Forum.

Dear Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay,

Tamil Nadu CM Vijay in office (File Photo/ANI)

I am writing this letter as a Tamilian who was born and raised in Kanyakumari, educated in schools in Kanyakumari, Vellore, and Chennai, and had the privilege of studying at Loyola College, Madras. Later, I pursued my higher studies at the University of Delhi, University of Oxford, Harvard University and the University of Hong Kong. I left the city of Chennai more than 30 years ago for various educational and professional pursuits in India and around the world.

Despite that, wherever I have lived and worked, I have always nurtured the hopes of Tamil Nadu and its people and society deep within me: The faith and emphasis on education, the historical commitment to contributing to human dignity, and the relentless pursuit of fulfilling aspirations that have created opportunities for every generation.

I also write to you as a fellow Loyolite whose path crossed yours, albeit briefly. I joined Loyola in 1991 and completed my BCom degree in 1994. My time at Loyola briefly overlapped with your time studying visual communication.

Yet the issues that I plan to discuss are matters of public importance. Let me begin by congratulating you on garnering the trust of the people of Tamil Nadu through a democratic process and assuming leadership as the Chief Minister (CM) of Tamil Nadu. Never before in the history of Tamil Nadu, and rarely in the history of India, has an elected CM who was not predicted to win gained that high office purely because of the mandate of the people of Tamil Nadu.

In this spirit, I am offering you four suggestions.

• Make integrity an institutional culture of governance: Throughout your campaign, you emphasised the need for a corruption-free government. The harder task now for you is this: After your victory, how will you run a government that will confront these practices, discourage the incentives, and undermine the vested interests that have allowed and enabled corruption as an accepted form of institutional governance? While personal integrity undoubtedly creates confidence in the leader, institutional integrity is the only way to ensure that decisions taken in government are fair and transparent, even when the leader is not present.

For the people of Tamil Nadu, corruption most often attacks their personal dignity. This could take different forms and manifestations: unofficial payments for obtaining a birth certificate, a bribe to obtain a driving licence, an intermediary demanding payment for an entitlement, speed money to fast-track permissions, approvals or licences, or an unexplained delay that disappears when money changes hands.

A credible and robust reform agenda must address these day-to-day encounters of ordinary citizens with the government machinery. You have a responsibility to make transparency a habit. You need to work towards making procurement transparent, appointments fair, and public services time-bound.

There is a need to build robust, independent scrutiny while protecting whistleblowers and those who report wrongdoing. Publication of this information will enable citizens to monitor public expenditure and, in the process, help you and join hands with you in providing clean administration.

This principle of accountability also needs to be shared with your colleagues in the party, partners in the political coalition, and other political appointees. The nature of coalition politics in a democracy will, on many occasions, require negotiations. I can only hope that they never lead you to walk away from the principles on which public trust has been reposed in you as you establish these important boundaries. The message that you want to convey is that proximity to the CM does not secure immunity from any form of scrutiny.

Your greatest contribution, and indeed a significant legacy, could be the establishment of a culture of governance in which integrity and honesty become the natural way of government, guiding public institutions and government officials in the exercise of power.

• Become a more accessible CM: The past life you lived had indeed created a distance. Individuals saw you on theatre screens, watched your performances with admiration, and found hope and inspiration in the stories you brought to life. For many years, people knew you as a celebrated actor and admired you for the characters you portrayed on screen.

Heroism is indeed powerful, but much of this admiration was experienced from a distance. The relationship between an actor and his admirers is fundamentally different from the relationship between a political leader and the people he represents. Democratic politics alters the contours of that relationship; the people of Tamil Nadu, who have entrusted you with power, naturally seek opportunities to speak. They want to be heard and to influence decisions that may be impacting their lives. Their dreams and aspirations now relate to employment, education, health, infrastructure, improved quality of governance in administration, and, most importantly, their ability to be heard by those who hold power.

The fact of the matter is this: You won the election as the leader of a party. But after having become the CM of Tamil Nadu, you now serve as the CM for every person in your state, including those who did not vote for you and probably those who were not convinced about your politics. They have an equal claim on your attention. You want to create numerous concentric and related circles of engagement that transcend your closest colleagues; there is a case for drawing in elected representatives, scholars, media representatives, civil society, entrepreneurs, organisation officials, private sector representatives, farmers, workers and citizens across the political, economic, social and ideological constituencies.

There are various ways by which this can be done. There is a case for consultations; visits to various districts with somewhat unscripted exchanges and conversations; more organised and accessible public hearings; reliable grievance redressal mechanisms; and opportunities to consult with all stakeholders, especially for important governance decisions.

While digital forms of communication can broaden participation, please remember that there are people without connectivity or technological confidence who ought to have other opportunities, ways, and means to connect with your work. I recognise that no CM can meet everybody. At the same time, everybody should nevertheless feel that the government is reachable, that a petition sent will receive reasonable cognisance, at times a responsible reply, and on appropriate occasions a deliverable remedy.

Citizens ought to have the freedom to share with you an uncomfortable truth, offer an unfamiliar idea, or even challenge a decision. Such candour can only strengthen your government. A reputation for accessibility gives your political leadership the moral foundations critical to democratic politics.

• Expand the intellectual foundations of your government:The future of Tamil Nadu will need substantive thought leadership about public finance, education and employment for youth, health and health infrastructure, urban planning and urban development, the development of new infrastructure, including transport and mobility, and environmental resilience. Your political commitments and electoral promises ought to set the direction of policy, led by you as the CM.

You need to increase the intellectual gravitas of your government substantially. Please consider surrounding yourself with people who are capable of asking difficult questions, intellectually challenging a government's public policy choices, examining evidence, and explaining the various trade-offs the government will constantly have to make. This expertise ought to be welcomed even when it at times complicates a decision or delays a course of action.

It is important for you to know that as you rise higher in political and public life, there are greater possibilities of being surrounded by people who are mostly going to agree with you, will endorse your decisions without question, and will work towards further reinforcing your own beliefs, ideas, and even convictions.

I suggest that you consciously develop alternative channels of communication and even consultations, which may be, at times, informal and even private with individuals who are not necessarily found in the corridors of power or within the predictable and familiar circles of political, bureaucratic, and administrative influence. I believe that some of the most valuable and relevant perspectives might come from somewhat unconventional thinkers, academics, independent minds, and other individuals who have neither a position of power nor a favour to seek from you.

You need people in your circle who have the intellectual independence and autonomy to speak their mind and the personal courage of conviction to tell you when they believe that you may not be right. These conversations, I believe, can help you challenge assumptions, at times even recognise mistakes, make course corrections, discover new possibilities, and also appreciate that formal structures of government may not always reveal the full truth.

There is a case for you to consider the involvement of people beyond political party affiliations and ideological limitations. Individuals such as Professor Raghuram Rajan and Dr Palanivel Thiaga Rajan are great examples of the knowledge, experience, expertise, and intellect that Tamil Nadu can draw upon. Professor Rajan's intellectual leadership, scholarship, and central banking experience offer important perspectives that will be highly relevant to your government. Dr PTR's own contribution and experience in finance and government deserve strong engagement regardless of political differences.

There is a need for looking beyond economics: Educators, scientists, technology specialists, public health professionals, lawyers, entrepreneurs, innovators, and experienced administrators who can contribute to better policy. There is a case for you to induct practitioners who understand why even the best public policy programs sometimes do not achieve their objectives and end up failing.

At the level of delivery, the diasporic Tamilian expertise is not only limited to its locality and locale within the state of Tamil Nadu. People who may be working in other parts of India and internationally may be happy to welcome the opportunity to contribute to your leadership and vision. There is a need to build channels of communication through which their experience and expertise can serve your state without requiring political affiliation or physical relocation.

Every department in your government needs to seek knowledge from outside, share experiences, and even recognise mistakes early so that the possibility for change remains not just an aspiration but a lived responsibility throughout the evolution of your administration. Technical expertise should help you strengthen democratic judgment, while the final responsibility will remain with you and your colleagues in your cabinet. There is a case for bringing new expertise even within the cabinet.

• Build partnerships in the private sector with a focus on education: You need to engage closely with enlightened businesses, thoughtful entrepreneurs, universities, and philanthropic institutions through transparent collaborations which are directed towards clearly defined public outcomes. In this regard, education provides a significant point of convergence. Connect with schools, colleges, and universities on research and development, emerging innovations and technologies, and well-established organisational practices.

The emerging needs of business: Bring the students to the heart and centre of your governance. Bring together the young people of Tamil Nadu so that these partnerships improve, create internship opportunities, and establish an entrepreneurial environment that leads to meaningful employment.

You need to prioritise accessibility and make it central to your reform agenda. A young person's aspiration to benefit from innovation should not depend solely on family income, location, disability, or, for that matter, familiarity with a particular language. There is a strong case for promoting scholarships, affordable programmes, educational accessibility, technological access, and robust pathways from rural institutions, which can help ensure that progress reaches those most likely to be suffering from exclusion.

Build on institutions and initiatives that have worked well. There is a case for public and private institutions to come together to promote constructive dialogue, thereby establishing and benchmarking new standards of accountability. This ought to be done while your government retains the responsibility for equity, quality, and accountability.

CM Vijay, these ideas and perspectives come from me because of the affection that I have for the state that shaped me, and I have hopes for the responsibilities you now carry. I believe the integrity you have demonstrated can protect public trust. Accessibility can deepen it, but only through expertise and purposeful collaboration can these ideas translate into lasting impact.

More than 30 years after leaving Tamil Nadu, I still believe that its promise and its future are a personal responsibility. I fervently hope that your leadership will give that commitment a fuller and more meaningful expression. It will allow the citizens of Tamil Nadu to experience dignity and fairness in their interactions with the government and its instrumentalities, including government officials exercising power.

(The views expressed are personal)

This article is authored by C Raj Kumar, Founding Vice Chancellor, OP Jindal Global University and President, World University Leaders Forum.