State of play
A tweet by Tamil playwright and public intellectual Indira Parthasarathy on Tamil Nadu’s budget and the way it went viral symbolises the public perception of the budget by and large. Professor Parthasarathy, not known for making comments often on political events, called the budget “nuanced, broad-based and people-oriented”. But what was more surprising, to critics and supporters of the ruling DMK alike, was the budget itself, the regime’s first budget for a full financial year (2022-23).
The supporters were surprised by the absence of any dramatic announcement of freebies. There was no word on the restoration of the old pension scheme for government staff, which was promised by the ruling party during the 2021 Assembly elections. The critics were surprised as the DMK, which rode back to power in 2006 on the assurances of free distribution of colour TV sets and cooking gas stoves, was showing an inclination towards the rationalisation of subsidy distribution.
