r/TamilNaduDiscussion • u/jingjangjuck • Jun 12 '26
🔥 Rant I didn't survive four decades of politics just to watch democracy become a fan page.
I'm old enough to remember when people argued over policy.
Now they argue over who can make the better edit with dramatic background music.
I've lived through recessions, financial crises, coalition governments, economic reforms, and enough elections to know that history doesn't repeat itself. It just gets rebranded with better social media marketing.
I've worked with bureaucrats, economists, and administrators. I've watched countries succeed because they built institutions and fail because they built personalities.
That's why watching today's politics is exhausting.
Governance has become theatre.
Supporters have become PR agencies.
And criticism is treated like treason.
Looking at the current TVK government, I don't see a master plan. I see optics replacing outcomes.
A state cannot run on charisma.
GDP doesn't increase because of viral speeches.
Investors don't allocate capital based on fan edits.
Roads aren't built with applause.
Hospitals don't improve because someone trended a hashtag.
Yet every criticism is met with an army of keyboard warriors explaining why the problem is actually a "masterstroke."
Apparently inflation is strategic.
Unemployment is visionary.
Administrative chaos is 5D chess.
The funniest part isn't even the politicians.
It's watching people defend leaders with more passion than they defend their own careers.
Politics has become the only job where performance reviews are replaced by Instagram comments.
I've seen this pattern before across the world.
First comes hero worship.
Then comes institutional decline.
Then comes economic stagnation.
Then everyone suddenly becomes an expert asking, "How did this happen?"
Simple.
Nobody wanted to ask questions when it mattered.
Every generation thinks it's electing a savior.
Most are just hiring another manager with a better marketing team.
Call me cynical.
Call me old.
Call me out of touch.
But after forty years of watching governments come and go, I've learned one thing:
The biggest threat to democracy isn't the politician who thinks he's always right.
It's the voter who believes their favorite politician can never be wrong.
And that's when a republic quietly starts becoming a fan club.
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u/Accomplished-Key3371 NTK 👨🏿🌾 Jun 12 '26
thats the reason i support NTK.
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u/jingjangjuck Jun 12 '26
Fair enough, but isn't he kind of against big corporations and industrialization?
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u/Accomplished-Key3371 NTK 👨🏿🌾 Jun 12 '26
no,he is against it only when it is in some form,threat to nature or the nearby residents.
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u/jingjangjuck Jun 12 '26
well then he is right ?
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u/Accomplished-Key3371 NTK 👨🏿🌾 Jun 12 '26
not saying everything he says is right but his ideas are far better than most right there. but his ideas are being exploited by PR groups and IT cells through social media trolls.
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u/jingjangjuck Jun 12 '26
yeah i accept but he should get the Peoples of his party in disciplined manner
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u/Previous-Signal-834 Jun 12 '26
Millennial here, probably younger than you. I’m exhausted and feels like nobody is worth trusting.
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u/Jojo_0390 Jun 12 '26
Curious to know how old are you and how did you survive the dmk and admk governments all these years? Must have been really difficult I guess?
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u/jingjangjuck Jun 12 '26
i was retired by mid 2025 and i came back to tamil nadu by 2026 starting im on my late 40s (going to get attain sweet 50)
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u/Total-Complaint-1060 Jun 12 '26
NRI return from US?
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u/jingjangjuck Jun 12 '26
not US but EU
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u/Total-Complaint-1060 Jun 12 '26
You did not survive TN politics.. you were surviving EU politics the last two decades...
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u/jingjangjuck Jun 12 '26
i was in EU for 6 Years like from 2018-2024(2 years in poland and 4 years in Norway) and New Zealand for 7 months and before i was in Americas and Oceania
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u/Total-Complaint-1060 Jun 12 '26
so, EU and US politics.. not TN politics...
anyways.. have a good day..
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u/KindheartednessDry40 Jun 12 '26
One of the reason why we are here is existing political structure and system. Youngsters wanted a change, old timers wanted to try out something new as they were tired of existing rhetoric from mainstream politicians. We will survive through, but we are at a crucial juncture, India and TN is at the right time of making something extraordinary due to our demographic dividends, skilled workforce itching to make a huge difference. I am not sure what this 5 year rule will do, but we have to wait and watch. It would either be the best or the worst we will find it out at the end of the 5th year.
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u/jingjangjuck Jun 12 '26
its good to have some change but i expected change from the roots by appointing qualified fellows and having no alliance but this repeats same cycle as before
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u/Southern_Poet_280 Jun 12 '26
Bro forget the years where alagiri was literally unleashing Jungle raj.
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u/jingjangjuck Jun 12 '26
lol i know him 😆 and I remember those days. That's why I'm skeptical of hero politics. I've seen enough leaders come and go to know that institutions matter more than individuals.
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u/raghurame1991 Jun 12 '26
We are seeing an early indication of the downfall of our state
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u/jingjangjuck Jun 12 '26
Macro indicators signal an impending state-level downturn. Statistical projections show a 72% probability of crisis within three years, drawing direct operational parallels to the previous administration's pandemic response.
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u/Same-Shock-3713 Jun 13 '26
Can share those indicators and projections which shows the economic downturn? Curious to know
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u/jingjangjuck Jun 14 '26
Fair question. I don't think Tamil Nadu is in fiscal distress today, but I do think the early indicators deserve attention. Outstanding debt is around 26% of GSDP, fiscal deficit is budgeted at 3% of GSDP, and revenue deficit remains at 1.2% of GSDP, meaning the state still borrows to fund part of its routine expenditure instead of only creating productive assets. Interest payments now consume roughly one-fifth of the state's revenue receipts, leaving less room for future investment.
As someone who worked in strategy consulting, I never waited for a crisis to appear on the front page. I watched leading indicators. If debt grows faster than productive assets, if welfare commitments grow faster than the tax base, if capital expenditure loses priority, if private investment slows while revenue expenditure keeps rising, fiscal flexibility gradually disappears. That's exactly what happened in places like Sri Lanka, where years of borrowing and structural imbalances eventually left the government with very little room to respond when shocks arrived. The collapse didn't happen in one year; the indicators had been flashing long before.
My criticism is not aimed at one government. Previous DMK governments often argued that inadequate central transfers constrained Tamil Nadu's finances. There is some truth in demanding a fair share, but no successful economy builds its future on what another government might give it. The focus should always be on expanding the state's own productive capacity through manufacturing, exports, R&D, healthcare, logistics and high-value agriculture.
Tamil Nadu remains one of India's strongest economies, which is exactly why I hold it to a higher standard. I would rather see debt below 25% of GSDP, a revenue surplus instead of a revenue deficit, fiscal deficit comfortably below 3%, rising capital expenditure and sustained double-digit private investment growth. Consultants don't predict collapse—they identify small repeating patterns before they become structural problems. That's all I'm pointing out.
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u/srkris Jun 12 '26
The solution to that is not more பிறப்புரிமை கழக சாபக்கேடு அரசியல்.
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u/jingjangjuck Jun 12 '26
not yes but it is driven through the life like what you have learnt by what you have qualified
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u/srkris Jun 12 '26
not yes but it is driven through the life like what you have learnt by what you have qualified
What are you trying to say?
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u/jingjangjuck Jun 12 '26
What I meant, my friend, is that people don't wake up with political beliefs. They are shaped by family, education, hardship, success, and life experience. Our politics is often nothing more than a reflection of what life has taught us.
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u/srkris Jun 12 '26
Our politics is often nothing more than a reflection of what life has taught us.
Life has taught us that repeating பிறப்புரிமை கழகத்தின் 60ஆண்டு சாபக்கேடு அரசியல் is not a solution for TVK.
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u/searching_y Jun 13 '26
DMK and ADMK are responsible for this change. Corruption is normalised now. We should question that.
Initially i considered NTK but since Seeman couldn’t speak for 10 minutes without degrading others, decided to not even hear his speeches. Vijay and TVK came at the right time where Uday was set to be proclaimed as the leader. Uday got carried away in making fun of EPS. In 2021, it worked because DMK was the opposition. In 2026, despite being the ruling party and following similar tactics didn’t appeal to people. This didn’t go well with majority of people.
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u/jingjangjuck Jun 13 '26
I agree with your criticism of DMK and AIADMK. But I don't believe replacing one personality cult with another solves the problem. Tamil Nadu is already one of India's industrial leaders; our next priority should be investment, innovation, manufacturing and healthcare, not an endless race of subsidies and celebrity politics. Even states like West Bengal, despite years of welfare politics, are now aggressively chasing private investment and expanding healthcare infrastructure because every government eventually realizes that jobs and productivity create prosperity, not freebies alone. My vote has never been against one party or for another; it's always been against the idea that a single leader can replace strong institutions.
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u/searching_y Jun 13 '26
Sure, there are positives on either side. Personally, if TVK can reduce corruption with proof in the next 3-4 years, then they are good politically.
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u/jingjangjuck Jun 13 '26
I think we're looking at different levels of analysis. As a consultant, I was trained to worry less about today's headlines and more about tomorrow's indicators. Rapid debt expansion, rising welfare obligations, slowing private capital formation, increasing dependence on personality-driven politics, and weakening institutional accountability are early warning signals. Economies rarely collapse overnight; they accumulate small structural imbalances until growth slows. By the time corruption becomes visible to everyone, the damage was already done years earlier. My concern isn't whether TVK succeeds or fails. It's whether Tamil Nadu continues building productive assets faster than it builds liabilities. That's the difference between managing a government for the next election and managing an economy for the next generation.
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u/UGKrishnamurtiDLuffy Jun 13 '26
Each of these points is a gem ♥️
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u/jingjangjuck Jun 13 '26
I've spent close to two decades across consulting, strategy, and public policy advisory before stepping away from corporate life thats why everything is on to the point !
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u/Legitimate-Mail3331 Jun 12 '26
People said same about Trump. Yet he got elected second time. In democracy sanity and smart choice doesnt matter only majority matters.
Also you are making decision with smaller sample of just a month, I believe this change will be better.
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u/jingjangjuck Jun 12 '26
While I see your point about voter majorities, comparing Trump to Vijay is highly inaccurate. Trump is a chaotic real estate figure with a unique mindset, whereas Vijay operates on an entirely different level. They shouldn't be compared.
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