If this is all what Tamil Nadu can do...

I just got back to England after nearly a month in India interspersed with visits to the UAE on work. It was wonderful to be in the land of one's birth, enjoying the blessings of good food, good company and sunshine. However there were a few observations on public life in India that I could not keep from intruding on the good times..

Tamil Nadu is blessed with an alert population of literate people, who have had the benefit of some fairly advanced social movements over the last century. The infrastructure is reasonably good - ask anyone about roads in Tamil Nadu versus those in Karnataka. There are a wealth of good institutions of higher learning. In primary education, the far-sighted "noon meal scheme" of former movie star-turned-politician MGR brought many children to school. All in all, it has all the ingredients for producing much higher growth than it does today.

Yet I am appalled at how the politics of posturing and populism rules unchallenged. Caste-based politics are rife. The ruling party is neatly parcelled into interests lead by the children of the much-married octogenarian Chief Minister. The CM himself can lay claims to his literary merits and his role in using the film media to drive a message of social change as his contributions to Indian public life - he can still be a mesmerising public speaker in Tamil as Vajpayee used to be in Hindi. But his offspring are like the second generation anywhere. Blessed with the name of the Georgian leader of the Soviet Union - why, God alone knows - the heir apparent revels in populist measures that will definitely bankrupt the State. Free Colour TVs for all. Free clothes for all. Free rice for all.

Not that a responsible opposition is waiting in the wings. The former film star turned former Chief Minister has made it a point not to attend the state legislature. Instead of focussing on building a credible opposition movement based on real issues of governance, she sulks, biding her time and waiting for the world to come fall at her feet and anoint her as the next leader. Apart from the noise that usually passes for debate in the Legislature, there is no credible challenge to the government.

This is a state that has produced Nobel Laureates, economists, national level politicians, musicians, artists, sportsmen and sportswomen, writers and educators - and whose people are often held up as intellectuals in the rest of the country. Yet this is the kind of people they elect. Why talk about the antics of Mayawati or those of the former CM of Jharkhand. If this land of Tamils can only elect a lot like what inhabit the MLA hostel in Tamil Nadu, what hope do the lesser-endowed states have?