Arun Lakshman

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin is banking on his MIT educated former US-based banker, PTR Thiagarajan for a major role to play in the future national politics as well as to steady the ship in the state.

When Stalin , after the resounding success in the electoral hustings of 2021 picked PTR Thiagarajan who is a product of MIT and had worked with Lehman Brothers in the US and with another international banking consortium in Singapore, eyebrows were raised from the traditional DMK political quarters but the Chief Minister was adamant on fixing Thiagarajan for the post.

After five world-renowned economists with diverging views on the subject , Nobel laureate Esther Duflo, Raghuram Rajan, Aravind Subramanian, S Narayanan and Jean Dreze , were roped in as the Economic advisors to the Chief Minister, Thiagarajan proved that he means business and political observers and DMK watchers had to concede that Stalin was right and apt in his choice.

The combination of Stalin and PTR Thiagarajan has diversity but there are shades of unity between them in their backgrounds. Stalin is deeply rooted in Tamil Nadu and a grass-root politician learning the tricks of the trade from his astute father, former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, Late M Karunanidhi. Stalin climbed the political steps one by one right from the youth wing leader, to Mayor of Chennai to Deputy Chief Minister and now the Chief Minister. PTR Thiagarajan has an envious academic background with a degree in Chemical Engineering from one of India’s premier institutes, National Institute of Technology (Formerly Regional Engineering College), and an MBA in Financial Management from Massachusetts Institute of Technology( MIT). Just like Stalin, PTR Thiagarajan has also a high pedigree with his grandfather P.T. Rajan being the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu and his father P.T.R. Palanivel Rajan was the Speaker and minister of the Tamil Nadu assembly.

While Thiagarajan as Finance minister gave tit for tat responses during the GST council meeting getting bouquets and brickbats with critics and opposition attacking him as a motor mouth and arrogant, fellow party men and party cadres were supportive of him and that he had raised the Tamil pride nationally.

The DMK government of Tamil Nadu led by M.K. Stalin assumed power after ten years in political hibernation and when it entered the seat of power, the party had several issues to face including a huge debt-ridden economy and had to face the second wave of the Covid pandemic as also have to manage the freebie culture of the state. Money is a problem for the state and the presence of an economist like Thiagarajan who is a former international banker and a product of MIT has given the state, a high level of credibility and respect both globally and nationally.

When the country was reeling under a vaccine shortage during the second wave of the pandemic and when things were getting out of control, Thiagarajan chipped in by approaching the President of the United States, Joe Biden directly through the good office of his friend and noted Medical doctor in the United States, Dr. Vijay Prabhakar, again hailing from Madurai in Tamil Nadu. The request was to provide 1 million doses of vaccine to India and of which a portion earmarked to Tamil Nadu. This was highly appreciated in the social, academic, and political circles of Tamil Nadu and praises were showered on Thiagarajan.

Now the million dollar question is whether Thiagarajan will be to Stalin like a Manmohan Singh was to Narasimha Rao. The deadly combination of the brilliant minds of a politician in Rao and an Economist in Singh lifted the country from the starring reality of an economic backlash to one with immense opportunities.

Stalin is a shrewd politician and he knows what he wants to deliver at the grassroots but with a trained economist at his helm of affairs as the state finance minister has lifted his morale and the interests of the state. The wide-ranging contacts, Thiagarajan is having across global leaders being a product of MIT is to be well-capitalized by the astute politician in Stalin.

With 2024 general elections hardly three years away, Stalin has already set his sights on a wider national picture and try and bring together a post-poll alignment at the national level. The shrewd Chief Minister is piggy riding on the good offices of Thiagarajan to catapult him to the higher echelons of power and the combination is turning to be a successful combination between Stalin and PTR Thiagarajan.

Political observers are of the opinion that this combination between Stalin and Thiagarajan could very well script a different history in the political landscape of Tamil Nadu. S. Shivashankar, Journalist and Political analyst from Madurai while speaking to BPNS said, “Stalin is a shrewd politician but he needed an image makeover and with an MIT trained economist as his Finance minister, the Chief Minister has got the necessary mileage and he can stand up to any national leaders as far as the economics are concerned. Moreover being an MIT hand, Thiagarajan has immense contacts across the globe among the movers and shakers of the International economic and business community and Stalin is expecting this to work to the advantage of Tamil Nadu.”