Click to play videoChennai: It's an afternoon movie in full colour that's now on in Teresa's house. Teresa's family had just got a free colour TV and as she enjoys an afternoon with the new addition to their one room home, Teresa's forgotten the rigours of daily life.
She has forgotten that she does not even have a toilet at home, that she uses a common pay toilet nearby and that she needs to store drinking water in plastic pots.
But the colour TV still can make her smile. "Given a choice between a toilet and colour TV I would have still chosen the colour TV," says she.
A farmer named Neelamegham is another beneficiary as Karunanidhi fullfills yet another election promise - two acres of land for landless farmers.
But even as the DMK chief delivers on his promises, the state's finances are bearing the brunt.
- Subsidised rice costs Rs 1190 crore.
- Colour TV's cost Rs 750 crore.
- Free gas stoves are close to Rs 150 crore.
And all this all in one fiscal year, which is nearly 10 per cent of the state's Rs 30,000 crore budget.
Also, the waiver of co-operative loans to farmers means a loss of over Rs 6,000 crore.
Says Principal Secretary, DMK, T K S Elangovan, "It is the duty of the government to give the people what they want."
Supporters of these schemes argue that it's not the cost of long-term economic growth. Their point is that when big industrial houses are given huge subsidies, no one questions them.
However, critics say the money could be used in providing basic amenities and infrastructure.
Economists argue that Teresa, one of the people who got the colour TV, would be better off if the same money had been spent on improving the sanitation in her area and that Neelamegam, who got two acres of land, would benefit more if the money was invested in increasing agricultural productivity.
Editor, Industrial Economist, S Viswanathan, says, "We spend Rs 106 crore on water and sanitation and we spend Rs 750 crore on colour TV! My worry is that this kind of politics can catch on at the national level."
However, sanitation and agricultural productivity does not win elections and ironically, even the reformist Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and fiscally prudent Finance Minister, P Chidambaram, are populist Karunanidhi's allies.
So no one is really talking economics when it comes to Tamil Nadu.
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