Kalaignar makes TN a Diamond State

The selection of Tamil Nadu for ‘India’s best Big State Award in Overall Performance’ and for three ‘Diamond State Awards’ in the categories of Citizen Security, Water and Sanitation and Women Empowerment among the Big States in the country for the years 2011, is most timely when the State is going to face the Assembly elections in a month from now to elect the next government. Coming at the fifth and final year of the present DMK government, the Awards, undoubtedly, speak for themselves about the creditable performance of the present DMK government. While it adds one more feather in the cap of Kalaignar for his dedicated and efficient performance as Chief Minister of the State, it is also a slap on the faces of Jayalalithas, Vijayakanths, Vaikos, Pandyans, Ramakrishnans and the likes for their boisterous charges against the DMK government, of the likes of Cho S.Ramaswamy for their cynicism and of the sections of the media for their negative campaign.

We live in an era where a nation is judged by the human development level of its people and fundamental freedom enjoyed by its citizens. IBN18 Network (of news channels) announced the winners of the third edition of the prestigious ‘IBN Diamond State Awards – a path-breaking editorial initiative in partnership with ‘Outlook’ journal – in recognition of human and social development efforts by the states of India, for affirming their commitment towards various social responsibilities such as citizens safety, women empowerment, poverty reduction, core infrastructure, education, employment, environment, healthcare, water and sanitation. In all these criteria – in overall performance Tamil Nadu was adjudged the Best State in India – relegating to the third place Gujarat, projected as model state by the BJP and Hindutva protagonist Cho Ramaswamy and also self-proclaimed by its Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

Besides Tamil Nadu was selected for three of the nine Diamond State Awards in the categories of Citizen Safety, Water and Sanitation and Women Empowerment in which its performance was par excellent. “IBN7 Diamond State Awards -2011” is the only one of its kind initiative that recognizes the extraordinary efforts of the state and their determination to bring about changes. Instituted in the year 2008, the Awards had become a landmark event, recognizing development in socio-economic sphere and celebrating common man’s privileges. For the last two years, the awards were received by all and got an unprecedented response from people across various social strata. Pioneered by IBN7, India’s leading Hindi news channel, the awards strive to create a stronger and prosperous nation”, it has been claimed.

The selection process for ‘IBN7 Diamond States Awards 2011’ was a credible multi-pronged approach involving secondary data from authentic sources and primary data from a nationwide research exercise conducted by Nielsen, the research partner for the awards. KPMG, the independent Knowledge Partner managed the process, methodology and the data for arriving at the best states for the various categories of the awards.

The list of parameters  in each category were evaluated by the best journalistic brains in the country from IBN18 Network Editorial Board & the Outlook Editorial Board comprising of Raghav Bahl, Rajdeep Sardesai, Ashutosh, Vinod Mehta & Neelabh Mishra. A five member jury comprising well-known personalities drawn from different walks of life, deliberated on the categories, criteria and parameters to finalize the framework of selection and ranking of states across the different categories. The Jury included eminent citizens like Dr. Bimal Jalan – Former RBI Governor & Chairman of the Jury, Mr. M Damodaran – Former Chairman SEBI, Dr. Bakul H Dholaki – Former Director IIM-A, Mr. TSR Subramanium – Ex- Cabinat Secretary, Govt of India, Dr. Shaibal Gupta – Secretary, Asian Development Research Institute.

Neither IBN network and its English joint news channel CNN-IBN nor the ‘Outlook’ weekly magazine are sympathetic to the DMK. On the contrary they are highly critical and spread speculative anti-DMK stuff. So also none of the jury are even remotely connected with the DMK or Kalaignar. However, while credible multi-pronged approach involving secondary data from authentic sources and primary data from a nationwide research exercise conducted by an independent organization was adopted and an independent knowledge partner managed the process, methodology and the data for arriving at the best states for the various categories of awards and for the Best State in overall performance, Tamil Nadu has emerged objectively as the Best State in India.

The praise and honour bestowed on the DMK government and the leadership of Kalaignar constitutes a severe blow to Jayalalitha & Co., and the vested interests in the media hell bent on misleading the people of Tamil Nadu with concocted and distorted versions about the DMK government, the Party and Kalaignar. But people do not always go by what is said to them but decide by what they felt by their own experience. In spite of all noises made of deteriorating law and order, they feel in their own lives that Tamil Nadu continues to be a haven of peace with no major incidents affecting communal harmony and law and order maintained well. They see for themselves development and progress taking place on the roads they walk and in places where they travel to. They observe, experience and enjoy the benefits of various projects executed in the last five years and the social welfare schemes implemented by the DMK government which have reached every household in the state and play significant part in the day-to-day life. By experience of the past they also know that all these benefits will be withdrawn and the state will reverse the process of development if at all the earlier nightmare returns. They are wise and intelligent and once bitten (in 2001-06), they are twice shy.

For the people of the state know that Kalaignar has made Tamil Nadu a diamond state and transformed it the Top state in India and this achievement is much more commendable because Tamil Nadu has been lifted from the rock bottom 19^th place in the surveys conducted by the ‘India Today’ from 2001 to 2006. They know Thiruvalluvar’s saying,

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which means “Total involvement in a task and the will-power to perform leads to success the way one targets” and that Kalaignar is the standing proof for the ‘one’!