Chennai: “In the first two years of the government, he performed well as a minister of finance and was a force behind many reforms”—this is how Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam president and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin showed his appreciation for state minister Palanivel Thiaga Rajan (PTR) during a two-day technology and innovation summit in Chennai on 23 February this year.
This is the same minister who was said to have fallen out of favour with the party leadership and stripped of his finance portfolio in the wake of a controversy surrounding an audiotape alleged to be PTR’s, released by state Bharatiya Janata Party chief K. Annamalai in April 2023. PTR was made the minister for IT and digital services in May 2023.
The first finance minister in Stalin’s government formed in 2021, PTR was always known to be vocal and active on government and party issues. However, he mellowed after the audiotape row, spoke less, kept an arm’s distance from party affairs, and is now said to have reconciled with Stalin.
According to DMK leaders and analysts, PTR has certain unique advantages that other senior party leaders lack, such as bringing in new ideas and reforms in the finance sector to stabilise the economy, apart from countering the BJP on social media. While this has also created friction with the party’s old-timers, the DMK leadership knows it cannot afford to sideline PTR, they say.
There has also been talk of bringing PTR back to the finance ministry or giving him another plum portfolio.
“Soon after the Lok Sabha elections, there were plans to bring him to more prominent positions in the party as well as in the government. However, subsequent issues including the Kallakurichi hooch deaths and the Armstrong murder forced the DMK to hold the move for a while,” says professor Ramu Manivannan, former head of the department of politics & public administration at the University of Madras.
A highly placed source in the DMK confirmed part of the speculation: “It’s true that there is talk of giving him a prominent portfolio; however, bringing him back to finance is not possible as it involves a lot of complexities.”
How did PTR reconcile with DMK leadership?
Active on social media, PTR is known for giving ferocious responses to BJP leaders, and has previously also called Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman “anti-federal” and accused her of “accumulating Tamil Nadu’s rightful share of funds at the Centre”.
The April 2023 audiotape was apparently a turning point for PTR. In it, a male voice, claimed by Annamalai as that of PTR, says that Stalin’s son Udhayanidhi and son-in-law V. Sabareesan had allegedly accumulated huge wealth by illegal means.
PTR said the tape was fake and even took to social media to explain how it could have been created using AI.
“Until then, Udhayanidhi had high regard for PTR. But, after the audiotape row, Udhayanidhi lost his trust in PTR,” says a DMK source who has worked with both PTR and Udhayanidhi.
In May 2023, PTR was given charge of IT and digital services in the state—a move seen as a “demotion” at the time. However, things have changed a lot since then.
“PTR is known for his professionalism and did not show any displeasure after the change in his portfolio. He continued his work and has put in a lot of efforts to rejuvenate the state’s IT sector, which was once a flourishing department under former CM M. Karunanidhi’s rule,” adds the source close to PTR and Udhayanidhi.
PTR, among the very few ministers to have direct contact with Stalin, was soon back in the good books of the CM. This February, inaugurating the Umagine 2024 technology and innovation summit in Chennai, Stalin expressed his appreciation for PTR and said he had moved him to the IT department to bring changes in the sector, just as he had done for finance.
Another source at the DMK headquarters says the reconciliation happened in January 2024, just a month before the summit.
The source close to PTR and Udhayanidhi says, “The friction was resolved when the CM appointed PTR’s mother Rukmani Palanivel Rajan as the chairperson of the Meenakshi Amman Temple, and she is the first woman chair of the temple.”
‘PTR kept a low profile’
PTR is a rare politician in Tamil Nadu who dons a formal blazer and a pair of trousers for his official meetings with non-political persons, and who wears a traditional shirt and dhoti to political meetings and to the assembly.
He is also one of those rare people who wear wrist watches on both hands.
Elaborating on the watches on social media, PTR said the one on his left hand is his grandfather’s watch to remind him of his legacy and duty to follow his forefathers into public service, and the one on the right is a health tracer that he upgrades often and which reminds him that things are always changing.
PTR’s father and grandfather were both politicians and leaders of the Dravidian movement.
Despite being a believer, PTR has been seen upholding the principles of Dravidian ideology on social media and in interviews, irrespective of his official position.
Posting on X five years ago, PTR had attacked Jaggi Vasudev, founder of Coimbatore-based non-profit Isha Foundation, calling him “precisely the type of conman that enraged Periyar”. PTR was then a first-time MLA and secretary of the newlyformed IT wing of the DMK.
This is precisely the type of conman that enraged Periyar – a charlatan of high caliber, with a shady past & ongoing violations (HC judgements & TN CAG reports). But he does add one value: exposes the nature of his shady friends and vacuous followers. https://t.co/hjxK03q7zB
— Dr P Thiaga Rajan (PTR) (@ptrmadurai) June 20, 2019
PTR has also been DMK’s point-person to counter the BJP’s charge that the party is anti-Hindu.
“He did not mince his words even after becoming finance minister. Just days after becoming the finance minister, he termed Jaggi Vasudev ‘a publicity hound and charlatan’,” says a former close aide of PTR.
Soon after taking charge as Tamil Nadu finance minister, PTR in an interview with The Hindu in May 2021 criticised Vasudev for demanding that temples be freed from the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments department of the state government.
The former aide added: “We need a person like him (PTR) to shut the mouths of the BJP netas both at the state level as well as at the national level.”
However, there was an apparent change in PTR after his finance portfolio was taken away.
According to a senior DMK leader, “There wasn’t any instruction to him to not voice out his opinion. He was not even sidelined from the party. He has himself kept a low profile. In fact, he is one among the seniors who have direct contact with the CM and the first family.”
‘A tiff within the DMK’
According to the senior party leader, some of PTR’s cabinet colleagues were not happy with the kind of attention he was getting from the CM.
The leader added: “Despite being a first-time minister, with his professionalism, he has earned a good reputation in the eyes of the CM and also in the public sphere. However, people inside the party understood that he was getting more limelight only because he could converse in and write tweets in English, which is unfortunate.”
A. Ramasamy, political commentator and former professor and head of the Tamil department at Manonmaniam Sundaranar University, says the tiff within the DMK was because of differences in opinion between those who have a theoretical knowledge of politics and finance, and those who have experience on the ground.
“Undoubtedly, PTR is an intellectual and professional, working with his decades of experience in economics and finance. However, the seniors in the DMK also have decades of experience, but on the ground and not in the academic arena. Hence, the tiff is natural,” he said.
The senior DMK leader also attributes the growth of the party on social media to PTR’s efforts during his stint as the IT wing secretary.
“Had he not expanded the base of the DMK’s IT wing across the state, bringing in more youth, we would not have been able to counter the BJP netas who make frivolous, yet damaging, comments with the help of their war room,” says the leader, adding that PTR was also instrumental in bringing young blood into the party.
Although PTR reduced his social media presence following the audiotape row, he never sulked at his duties after the change in his portfolio, says a junior-level official associated with the IT and digital services ministry.
The official adds: “This year, he visited the US to meet CEOs of IT companies there. He is enthusiastic about his work and never forgets to follow up on the tasks assigned, however small they may be.”
Despite having differences in views with PTR, another senior leader in the DMK says the former has worked to earn his good reputation and it was not because of his legacy.
“I don’t agree with his views on economic policies, but he has undoubtedly earned his reputation,” the second leader said.
Ramasamy, who like PTR comes from Madurai, echoes this view.
“Even in Madurai, PTR has been elected as MLA for the second term, yet there is no anti-incumbency and people have a good opinion of him. He has created a lot of job opportunities for the people of his constituency with the start-up companies he has opened here,” he says.
‘Plum portfolio’
Amid speculation about a cabinet reshuffle and the possible elevation of Udhayanidhi as deputy CM, Manivannan says a prominent portfolio for PTR is also on the cards.
“It was supposed to have happened soon after the Lok Sabha results. However, it was delayed due to various issues. The DMK government may not do anything to disturb the status-quo, but a change in portfolio for PTR is definite,” he said.
A highly placed source at the DMK headquarters in Chennai also confirms that there are plans to give a prominent portfolio to PTR, but not the finance ministry, for two reasons:
“One, if he is given the portfolio again, whatever he was alleged to have said in the audiotape could be assumed to be true. Two, PTR and the finance secretary were not on good terms and it would not go well between them.”
Ramasamy, too, believes the DMK would not miss rewarding a person like PTR, since the work of the party and the Stalin government has to be known on the national as well as international levels. “In the run-up to state elections, it is the need of the hour,” he says.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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