CHENNAI: Given that maintenance of law and order and controlling crime is a politically sensitive topic in Tamil Nadu, Chief Minister MK Stalin’s data-backed assertion of the state recording the lowest number of murders in a decade in 2024 is to keep naysayers at bay. However, Stalin, also the state’s home minister and an experienced politician, will know that the perception war is built on the magnification of individual incidents, rather than comparison of yearly statistics.
For the DMK, this can be an Achilles heel as the law-and-order issues are routinely cited as a reason for the party’s electoral drubbing in 2011 after a five-year reign.
Official data show that murders, the most important indicator of law and order, came down by 7% in 2024 compared to the previous year. Top cops, including DGP Shankar Jiwal, Greater Chennai Police Commissioner A Arun and Avadi Police Commissioner K Shankar, have given the credit to a policy of monitoring history-sheeters through an exclusive mobile app to prevent targeted killings. Administrative heads have also focused on securing more convictions of history-sheeters by building strong cases in court
However, the opposition parties’ perception of the state’s law and order has been shaped by certain high-profile killings, especially of mining corruption whistleblower Jagaber Ali in Pudukkotai, the murder of a retired sub-inspector Zakhir Hussain Bijli in Tirunelveli (both in 2025) and the gruesome murder of then BSP state president K Armstrong in Chennai (2024), coincidentally in Stalin’s assembly constituency, Kolathur.
Stalin’s thunderous averment that Tamil Nadu is no Uttar Pradesh, Manipur or Kashmir can be denied by few; what can’t be is that communally-sensitive Coimbatore was the victim of an ISIS-styled car bomb blast in October 2022, about 17 months after Stalin took charge, which the local police initially attributed to a gas cylinder. Cops in the state bounced back in May 2024 when Greater Chennai Police arrested a few members of a local module of the Hizb-ut-Tahrir, which the Union government banned later.
Detractors are also quick to flag the state police’s apathy towards caste violence, especially crimes against Dalits in southern districts; activist A Kathir of Evidence has repeatedly highlighted the rise in atrocities against Dalits. The data too suggest that cases of heinous crimes including murder, sexual abuse and Pocso cases in which the SC/ST Act was also invoked have increased in 2024, though the overall number of cases booked under the Act had declined. Given the DMK’s commitment to social justice, every such case of alleged atrocities against Dalits has given the opposition and activists a stick to beat the government with, adding to the perception battle.
The state police have also received flak from human rights activists like Henri Tiphagne pointing out the high number of extra-judicial killings and police excesses. At least 18 encounters were recorded since 2021.
Though murders have remained a talking point, the stiffest challenges faced by the Tamil Nadu police have been in controlling drugs and cyber-crime, which their own data indicate is surging in the state. Due to its geography, the state is a transit point for synthetic drugs which have spilled over into its urban centres like Chennai and Coimbatore. The state also has a problem of prescription medicines being abused by youngsters from socio-economically backward backgrounds.
The government’s response has been scientific; on the one hand, a special force in Chennai has clamped down on peddling of synthetic drugs like methamphetamine and cocaine, on the other the state has written to the apex drug controller regarding the illegal sale of prescription medicines bought in other states which are smuggled into Tamil Nadu on trains and buses. Like the rest of the country, cyber crimes too are surging in Tamil Nadu with its affluent pockets defrauded of crores with ‘digital arrest’ and ‘investment’ scams. Senior officials say their investigations have set a benchmark in the country with arrests made from multiple other states and kingpins operating from abroad identified.
