Why are Tamil Nadu government employees committing suicide?

Constant harassment and pressure to accept bribes has left employees of the Tamil Nadu administration disillusioned, reports R Ramasubramanian from Chennai.

The sudden incidents of suicides among employees of the Tamil Nadu administration has become a cause of concern. With four suicides in less than three months, and an equal number of attempts during the same period, the situation does look grave. 

It began with the suicide of a senior agriculture department engineer in Tirunelveli in February.  S Muthukumarasamy, 57, who was due for retirement in a few months, jumped in front of a speeding train and killed himself. It was revealed that he couldn’t withstand the pressure from his senior and the agriculture minister over the appointment of nine drivers. 

His colleagues and family complained that Muthukumarasamy was intimidated by then agriculture minister Agri Krishnamoorthy and another senior official to appoint certain drivers of their choice, who allegedly had bribed the officials. 

Muthukumarasamy had refused to toe the minister’s line and appointed drivers as per the established practice. 

After S Muthukumarasamy’s death and the huge public outcry that followed, the government was forced to first sack and then arrest Agri Krishnamoorthy. 

On May 3, another state government official, R Muthukrishnan, committed suicide by dousing himself with kerosene and setting himself on fire. In his dying declaration to a local magistrate, he blamed his seniors of harassment. 

In the past 10 days, there have been at least a couple of suicide attempts in Tamil Nadu. The state government employee unions put the blame on ministers and senior bureaucrats who they allege want them to collect bribes. Ministers and officers want their subordinates to take bribes, they charge, and every department has fixed targets to collect bribes and review meetings are held to take stock of how these targets are met.

“This has been in practice since the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam government took over in May 2011, but the situation has worsened after former chief minister J Jayalalithaa’s conviction in a corruption case,” says R Muthusundaram, president, All India State Government Employees Federation. 

Several observers agree that the situation has worsened. “No one considers O Panneerselvam as chief minister. This government considers itself a caretaker government. Though she is not the chief minister, Jayalalithaa is still the power centre. This peculiar situation is aggravating corruption,” says R A R Kannan, a senior journalist and political observer.

Retired bureaucrats from the state blame civil society and the freebie culture for the sorry state of affairs. “The dignity of government employees is under siege. Unless we bring back democracy with peoples’ participation, I think the situation will not improve. Unfortunately, people in the state are accustomed to this freebie culture and are least bothered about good governance. The situation in Tamil Nadu is rotten and there is no semblance of governance in the state,” says M G Deivasahayam, a retired IAS officer and former chief secretary of Haryana.

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