On May 24, 2018, M.K. Stalin, who was the Leader of the Opposition in Tamil Nadu, had demanded answers from the AIADMK government for the “Tuticorin massacre”. He had sought the resignations of the Chief Minister and Director General of Police (DGP). “The TN Govt has been unable to give answers to #TuticorinMassacre. We will ensure the protestors’ and peoples’ voices from Tuticorin are heard in Chennai. Our fight against this #IncompetentEPS Govt will NOT stop till the resignations of the CM and DGP. #SterliteProtest,” he had tweeted. Two days earlier, during the protests against Vedanta’s Sterlite copper smelter plant in Thoothukudi, 13 people, including Snowlin, 18, were killed in police firing.
Mr. Stalin had demanded registration of a murder case against those involved in the police firing, the withdrawal of the cases filed against the protesters, and the release of the arrested agitators. He had even accused the AIADMK-led government of using “impersonators for firing on and murdering the protesters.”
More than five years later, as Chief Minister, Mr. Stalin is facing uncomfortable questions on his stand then and now. What has put the issue back in the spotlight is the government’s decision to promote Additional Director General of Police Shailesh Kumar Yadav to the rank of DGP. Mr. Yadav, who was Inspector General (IG) of Police (South) at the time of the police firing, featured on top of the list of 17 police officers who were held “jointly and severally accountable” for the killings in a report submitted in 2022 to the Chief Minister by the Justice Aruna Jagadeesan Commission of Inquiry. The Commission recommended that “action be taken against the aforesaid police officers for their acts of commission and omission departmentally without prejudice to launching criminal action” Justice Jagadeesan said, “The IG also has his own share of blame, for he had failed to evolve fitting strategies on receipt of intelligence inputs strongly suggesting there was a great likelihood of breach of peace.”
When the Commission’s report was tabled in the Assembly, Mr. Stalin had described the incident as a “big black mark” on the State’s history and promised that those responsible would be brought to book. He said that departmental action had been initiated against the Collector and senior police officers. An officer in the rank of Deputy Superintendent of Police and three constables had already been suspended, he added.
The government’s decision to promote Mr. Yadav as DGP has made the DMK’s allies, such as the CPI and CPI(M), which were at the forefront of the anti-Sterlite protests, uncomfortable. However, with the Lok Sabha polls around the corner, they are not in a position to agitate aggressively. Instead. they have simply expressed their disagreement and urged the state to rescind the promotion.
The end of 2023 also saw another glaring case of administrative inaction in Tamil Nadu. On December 26, the Salem City Police acted on a complaint and arrested R. Jagannathan, the Vice Chancellor of Periyar University, on charges including criminal conspiracy and cheating. Mr. Jagannathan was accused of misusing his official position and floating a private company, the Periyar University Technology Entrepreneurship and Research (PUTER) Foundation, without obtaining the government’s permission. The university Registrar (full additional charge) K. Thangavel and two professors from other institutions were named as the co-accused. The four functioned as directors of the company while using the university’s address as their office.
Mr. Jagannathan, who was granted conditional bail, has since been hospitalised on health grounds, while the Registrar has gone incommunicado. Surprisingly, no administrative action has been taken against Mr. Jagannathan who continues to hold the post of Vice Chancellor. In the past, two Vice Chancellors of the erstwhile Anna University of Technology (Coimbatore) and Bharathiar University were suspended upon facing corruption cases and arrested, respectively.
In Mr. Jagannathan’s case, the Raj Bhavan is yet to officially state if Governor-Chancellor R.N. Ravi has sought a report about his arrest or recommended any action. The Higher Education Department too has not taken action against him despite the Vice Chancellor defying certain instructions from the government in the recent past.
