DELHI HAS COLONIAL MINDSET

INTERVIEW PALANIVEL THIAGA RAJAN - finance minister, Tamil Nadu

- LAKSHMI SUBRAMANIAN

As the freebie debate rages on after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's “revdi culture” remark, the Tamil Nadu government has sought to differentiate freebies from welfare schemes. The state's finance minister, Palanivel Thiaga Rajan, explained to THE WEEK how the Union government's policies were affecting the economy and the federal structure. Edited excerpts from an interview:

Q. How do you assess the impact of the Modi government's economic policies?

A. I would say that overall the economy has been mismanaged pretty badly, almost from day one. The Gujarat model had deep flaws. It was not acceptable growth, it was not inclusive. It was lopsided. That kind of insider-dealing, crony-capitalist model just cannot be executed at the national level.

Now, we find ourselves stuck in a model that is not realistic. We find ourselves skewed away from the many towards the few. Total taxation and direct taxes from the corporates have dropped drastically, and the burden on the common man has gone up. Similarly, cooperation with states, allowing them to do what they do best, has been decimated. This idea that Delhi knows best, and one nation one X and one nation one Y, is structurally flawed. This is doomed to fail. The question is how long it takes and how much damage it does.