What did Kalaignar M. Karunanidhi do?

11 min readJun 3, 2020

M. Karunanidhi, fondly called as Kalaignar, a former Chief Minister of the south Indian state Tamil Nadu, lived for 94 years. Here is a small, to the point attempt to showcase what a true leader can do for his state and for his people.

He was a five time Chief Minister of the state and was the Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) for 60 years, He was never defeated in an election as an MLA. He is the person who said and lived by People are not the enemy, issues are the real enemy.

He served as the Chief Minister of the state for just 19 of the past 72 years (written in 2020), Out of this 19, he was the Chief Minister just for 12 of the past 44 years. Rest of the times, his political opponents were in power. This small piece is a collection of visible, direct, factual things with actual implementation and they are not just from paper.

Industries

He Created SIPCOT in 1971, State Industries Promotion Corporation of Tamil Nadu. Every industry you have in TN owes it to this move. If someone goes to Hosur, Perundurai, Ranipet or Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu they can see the impact and the jobs these brought into full extent.
He created SIDCO in 1971, Tamil Nadu Small Industries Development Corporation Limited. This move helped Tamil Nadu achieve what it is today- it is ranked as second largest industrialized state. Here is a simple statistic on Tamil Nadu’s NSDP/NSDP per capita. In 1960–70, they were 2.1/0.1 and in 1970–80 they grew to 3.4/1.6. If this is seen in the context of the fact that India’s NSDP/NSDP per capita in the 70s was 2.22/1.81 and then from the 1970s, the state economy grew faster than national average it is clear the impact SIPCOT and SIDCO had.
He Created ELCOT — Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu Limited in 1977.
He created TIDEL Park, Chennai, one of the largest IT parks in Asia. It was up and running in 1999–2000 to foster the growth of information technology. Think again, 2000 — Internet was hardly entering the cities of India. Google was just two years old, there was no Facebook, there was no DotNet framework from Microsoft, Salesforce was just getting established.

His was the first government in India to get a separate IT Policy, back in 1997 (just 2 years since Windows 95, the first GUI based OS). The IT policy that his government framed was later copied/replicated at national level.
Tamil Nadu’s contribution to software exports in India before his attempts to get IT established, in 1995–96 was just 0.2%. By 2001–02, it rose to 13% of the country’s exports.
He introduced single window system for obtaining all licenses for starting industries, eradicating corruption at multiple levels, delays, and red tapes. There are states which were getting this done as late as last year and he was able to think of this 3 decades back.
Today one of the biggest headaches of many states and countries is how to help regulate unorganized workers’ employment. His was the first government to realize this and he created a board to address and form policies to protect and help them.
He is the sole reason behind so many big automotive factories finding home in Tamil Nadu, leading to the nick name for Chennai, “Detroit of India”, with more than one-third of India’s automobile industry being based in the city.

Salem Steel Plant was brought in by him, generating thousands of jobs in a backward region.
The country’s Second Mine-Cut and Electricity Scheme was set up in Neyveli by his efforts

Infrastructure

Chennai -10 Over bridges and 345 In TN, all in 5 years.
1967 to 1975 Number of bridges constructed = 80 Number of underground and over-bridges constructed = 40.
Anna flyover measuring 1599 feet length and 48 feet width was constructed within 21 months. At that time (1973), the bridge was the third of its kind in the nation.
The 4 and 6 lanes that we take for granted today in Tamil Nadu, were brought in by him and DMK’s central Minister Mr. T.R. Balu, I have traveled across the breadth and width of this country, even today the National Highway networks of other states are struggling to catch up, (Maharashtra and Rajasthan have been getting there)

First Chief Minister/Government to create a separate Highways department
Nationalized Private buses — gave a big boost to Tamil Nadu Govt buses, until around 10 years back Tamil Nadu had the best Govt Bus network and infrastructure in the country.
I still remember how filthy many towns used to be because of overflowing open sewage — he was the first Chief Minister and Tamil Nadu was the first state to implement underground sewage even in small municipal towns.
Chennai Metro
Started the work on Chennai Bypass
Setup a goal and mission back in 1971 to provide Electricity to all the villages
Scheme to get link roads to all the villages having a population of 1500
Concrete streets in villages.
Desilting of rivers, tanks, and canals in an unprecedented scale.
24-hour Primary Health Centers.
For the first time in India, MLA Constituency Development Fund.
Bus terminus at Koyambedu in Chennai, opened in 2002 (envisioned and constructed in Karunanidhi’s period). Even today, it is the Biggest bus terminus in Asia
The Koyambedu market complex — largest flowers/fruits/vegetable market complex in Asia
For the first time an additional bench of the state High Court (Madurai); Construction of buildings for it and for district and municipal courts in various districts.
119 new Courts have been opened; Rs. 302 crores allocated for providing infrastructural facilities in the Courts between 1996 and 2011
Rs.104 crore worth new buildings for Chennai General Hospital.
New buildings for collector offices in nine districts
Construction of over 20 small dams between 1996 and 2001
4,945 Kilometre long roads were broadened and converted to two-lane roads between 2006 and 2011
First Chief Minister, Govt to create a water and sewerage board — this was replicated across India and many other countries
The imposing Kathipara cloverleaf, the largest in whole of Asia.

Pioneer of Ramnad, Hogenakkal Kaveri Water supply projects — At least 1.7 crore people in the state, more than 20% of the population , in 19 districts are served by some 127 combined water supply schemes, most of which were done in Karunanidhi’s time
The Adyar Eco park, conceived based on the master plan for the restoration of the vegetation of the freshwater ecosystems of the Coromandel Coast, especially the fragile ecosystem of the Adyar estuary and creek

Govt. Officers

First Chief Minister, Govt in the country to give equal pay to state Govt employees as their central counter parts
First Chief Minister, Govt to streamline retirement age and associated benefits of Teachers and Govt employees, replicated across the country.
Family welfare financial aid for bereaved families of Govt employees (first govt in the country to do so)
Police Commission — First in India.
Confidential Reports on Government servants abolished
TESMA and ESMA scrapped; Concessions withdrawn from Government servants and teachers were given back to them

Farmers

The first farmers market in India and set it up across the state in every town. No rent for shops, no luggage charge in Govt buses, weights and scale were given free, farmers determine how much their produce is worth, abolished middlemen.
Free electricity to farmers and weavers -first time in the country and replicated across the country
Direct Paddy procurement centers.

Incentive and payment of cart-hire charges for procurement from farmers.
Tamil Nadu Civil Supplies Corporation established
Separate Welfare Board for agricultural workers
Cooperative loan waived to benefit hundreds of thousands of families of farmers.
No interest on crop loan to farmers who repay on time.
Enhanced procurement price at Rs. 1,050/-for common variety of paddy and Rs.1100/-for fine variety of paddy per 100 Kg.
Rs. 2,000 per ton of sugarcane, including transport charges and incentive to sugarcane farmers.
Local cess, Local cess surcharge and water charges have been scrapped. A notional tax of Rs.2 per acre of dry lands and Rs.5 per acre of wetlands levied as a mark of landownership
Gave away Government owned uncultivated land to landless small farmers who worked as laborers in the lands of affluent
Turning Tamil Nadu from a starving state in 1967 to a food surplus state within his first tenure with multiple revolutions in agriculture, procurement, civil supplies

Social Justice and Welfare

Hand rickshaws, pulled directly by men were abolished, they were given the modern pedal rickshaws
The “first graduate in family” scheme uplifted millions out of poverty. The first graduate in the family was given free education until her master’s degree, even professional courses like Engineering and Medicine were free for them.
First state to enact law against manual scavenging
Free homes for socially backward classes, tribal people
Implementation of 69% reservation
First state to create a board/department for the welfare of backward
He was not happy with the word ‘backward class’ so he made it in Tamil and made it mandatory to use the word ‘who were made to be backward’ (பிற்படுத்தப்பட்டோர்)
He coined the term “differently abled” in Tamil and created a ministry, board and gave 3% reservation in education and discounted fares in public transport, reservation in jobs
Slum Clearance board was created and within a period of 5 years from 1971, 25,000 houses were built at a cost of RS.27 crores. Many slums within Chennai city limits were cleared and even the poorest of the poor were given dignity and a concrete home to live in
Enacted law to say priests can come from all castes (Even the well-developed Kerala could do this only in 2018)
Housing schemes in rural areas and inviting all communities to live together, sharing basic infrastructure and amenities, paving way for equal living, he did this in a state where people kill in the name of caste even today, every now and then
Rice @ 1 Rupee/1 Kg, here we need to understand something, until a couple of decades back, rice was considered as a food of the elite. It was something the masters gave as charity to the servants. The socially and economically backward classes were made to think rice as an aspiration. He made it accessible for everyone.
Anna Renaissance Scheme — It aimed at injection of resources into village bodies in five years so that they could provide statutory services and infrastructure without waiting for the state government to do things
Color TVs for the poor (and all the rich took it too) I still remember the happiness in the face of many people for getting that free color TV and how they did not have to send her kids to other people’s home to see TV
Free Housing Scheme to Fishermen.
Special reservations for socially backward
The free gas stove and cylinder scheme, done a long back with a majority state subsidy back in 2006.
Aid for poor children with Heart diseases
First Govt to introduce mass health insurance for the poor in India
First Govt to introduce preventive Heath scheme in India
First Govt to introduce free cataract and eyeglasses scheme in India
Free cochlear implants for hearing impaired children, costing upwards of Rs. 600,000. This was a result of just a causal chat with a renowned specialist.
Path breaking benefits and even a respectable name in Tamil for transgenders
Establishment of tertiary care government hospitals in each of the districts
Today Tamil Nadu has the best people — doctor ration in the country thanks to that one man

Women

First government to give women equal share in parental/ancestral property by law, back in 1970
Enabled establishment of women self-help groups and pushed co-operative banks to give loans to them
Numerous scholarships
Free education for all girls till graduation, financially disadvantaged women were given free education till PG
Financial assistance for marriage of girl child, when they are 18+ and when they have completed 10th class of education- this one scheme pushed many send their girl children to school and stopped child marriages to a large extent
Widow remarriage financial assistance
Maternity financial aid scheme for the poor aiding in access to nutrition
30% employment reservation in Govt jobs
33% reservation in local body elections — In 1996, within six months after assuming office, in the elections for local bodies and cooperatives, 44,143 women including 2 women mayors assumed office
First Chief Minister to induct women into police force back in 1973

Education

Free education for disadvantaged/socially backward children
Free bus pass for students
1 Govt medical and engineering college per district as a policy and practice
Tamil as a mandatory language in School
Established Tamil as a classical language -first language to be recognized as a classical language and lead to add 5 more across India (Sanskrit, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Odiya)
The Anna Centenary Library — One of the largest libraries in the world, better equipped, automated, and stocked than even the British Council Libraries across the world. He made sure that even the poorest of poor students can come in and read and he created a section named “bring your own book” to help people with smaller homes/no proper facilities in home to read their college/school books.

First Agricultural University at Coimbatore
Multiple Universities across Tamil Nadu, including the Dr. MGR Medical University
Two language formula with Tamil and English
Dr. Ambedkar Law University — The first law university in India.
Eggs and banana in mid-day meal scheme — the average child malnutrition and mortality in Tamil Nadu is far better for years when compared with states which did not implement this or did years later.
15 per cent reservation in professional courses for rural students.
Automatic issuance of community certificate, nativity certificate, income certificate on completion of 10th and 12th standards from the year 1999–2000. This abolished corruption, red tape at many levels and enabled the poorest of poor get access to numerous government schemes.
Common entrance examinations to professional courses scrapped, which enabled the rural students to compete at par with the privileged kids in Medical and Engineering admissions
Anna Technical University at Trichy, Madurai, Coimbatore, and Tirunelveli established.
A commission was appointed for fixing the fee structure in private schools to prevent them from over charging

The language and ethnic identity he created will be always relevant, I have lived in other states and I have seen how their culture, arts, entertainment, language, education everything is overshadowed and overtaken by Hindi. You do not know the curse of that. You have not seen what kind of damage it could do.

Easy to say Hindi should have been there in my school, but show me the benefits? Why even one state out of the Hindi heartland is not ahead of even the slowest growing south state?

His first tenure (1970–76) increased the state GDP by a whopping 17%, per-capita income raised by 30%, Increased literacy rate by 15%. There are a very few leaders who can boast of that record in a poor country like India back in the 70s.

He is not with us today but he will be living in hearts of the millions he helped out of poverty and who were helped to overcome social injustice. He is their messiah, the creator and protector of social justice and unparalleled nightmare of the tyrants who try to oppress others in the name of caste, religion and social status. He indeed is the father of modern Tamil Nadu.