How do people respond to neglect, especially in politics? Well, in ‘Lalgudi Days’ it’s by self-declaration of death! The drama unfolded when Minister for Municipal Administration KN Nehru visited his native, Lalgudi, on Friday to inspect ongoing works in the municipality. However, due to political differences, he did not invite Lalgudi MLA A Soundarapandian. Later, when the minister posted photos of his visit on Facebook, a social media user asked, “Where is the MLA?” Before long, the MLA himself sarcastically posted a reply on his wall saying that Lalgudi MLA Soundarapandian had passed away and that the constituency had been declared vacant. As the post went viral, he deleted his comment and stopped responding to calls. People can die in different ways - normal death, brain death, death from inside and even political death! Oh, how we mere mortals are spoiled for choice.
Forced social service
Apart from the MSW course, the University of Madras seems to have one more way to churn out social workers. All you have to do is to join the university as a contractual Class IV employee. For the last two months, these workers, who have been diligently cleaning the university buildings, have not received salaries. In other words, they have been offering social service. When a faculty member recently asked one of the workers why the classrooms were not swept properly, her immediate reply was, “I am sweeping the classroom without any pay. This tidiness itself is too much. I have no time to worry about quality standards.” Well, don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.
DMK deja vu
As the term for representatives of rural local bodies in 27 districts is set to end in January 2025, the state government is supposedly planning to hold rural local body polls across TN. Sources said the DMK government has decided to also dissolve the rural local bodies in the remaining 11 districts, whose terms end in 2026, by October this year. This move is intended to facilitate simultaneous local body elections for all 38 districts. However, the news has created panic among DMK-affiliated elected representatives from the 11 districts. They have approached the party leadership, lobbying against the early termination of their terms. Well, for a sensational grist, they need not search far from the DMK’s own playbook regarding protests against the Centre’s ‘One Nation, One Election’ plan!
(Contributed by Kumaresan S, Binita Jaiswal; Compiled by Sneha Joseph)