Chennai Floods: Common People Rise To The Occasion, While The DMK Government Slumps Low

The most striking feature of both the 2015 and 2023 Chennai floods has to be how the common people came together on social media platforms and, in a rousing show of collective effort, rallied relief materials and rescue operations to those haplessly stranded in waterlogged areas.

The enterprising emergency work has been mostly coordinated by a bunch of resourceful youths using elementary communication tools and platforms.

Amidst all the strife and struggle of the floods, there was a certain beauty to the way folks organically came together, along with the unsung corporation and electricity workers, to try and be of help to those who needed it.

It is possible that most people spearheading this timely labour hardly know each other otherwise, yet have seamlessly joined hands for a collective purpose. It is equally likely that many of them will shrink back to their shadows, having contributed their mite in this hour of need.

But both in 2015 and now, the tragic story is that the government machinery, with more people and better resources, was caught napping. In both cases, the government of the day let the people down.

Criminal Negligence

In 2015, it was a bigger toil, as the trail of destruction was enormous and the communication system was more badly hit than now.

The Jayalalithaa government bungled disastrously, as the 'abrupt and uncontained release of water from Chembarambakkam reservoir' contributed to the massive floods that swept the city and its never-ending suburbs.

The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) called the Chennai floods of 2015 a 'manmade disaster'.

Despite the eight intervening years and the arrival of a new government, little seems to have changed and lessons have not been learnt.

This year, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) government did work on the hitherto non-existent stormwater drains (SWD) in Chennai. They are said to have pumped in close to Rs 4,000 crore for the same.

In the run-up to the cataclysmic Cyclone Michaung, the DMK ministers and Chennai Corporation councillors were making vaunted claims that there would not be any waterlogging and that a repeat of the scary inundation witnessed in the winter of 2015 was unlikely.

All of those talks have, of course, been proved massively erroneous.

Even if the new SWDs have helped avoid waterlogging in many areas (which were previously prone to heavy flooding), it is also a fact that the government was less than proactive on the two crucial days when it was clear that the city was in the firing line of the enormous cyclone.

Apart from declaring holidays for schools and offices on Monday (4 December), there seems to have been little effort made to move those in vulnerable areas — everyone knows which ones — to safer spots and also get the relief and rescue accoutrements ready in place.

And when the rains pounded relentlessly on Monday, the government machinery seemed to have been stalled in a blue funk. As the water levels surged alarmingly across neighbourhoods, the official apparatus seemed to only stand and watch, as if caught by a strange stage fright.

Narrative Control

By the time the DMK government gathered its wits and got to work, it was already late. Even then, its primary aim seemed only to look better than the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) government of 2015.

The 2015 effort of the Jayalalithaa government, especially in the initial aftermath of the floods, was shambolic and even shameful. They infamously put stickers of the government and the then-ruling party on the relief materials cobbled together by the public. It was pathetic.

Alas, the DMK government was trying to benchmark itself against this lowly low.

Having started on the wrong foot, the ruling dispensation dug itself into a bigger hole when it sought to, through its IT cell, control the narrative on social media platforms.

All those who had genuine issues and aired their grouse were shouted down with staggering vehemence by the DMK's IT cell brigade. The voices of the public were attempted to be drowned out by the trolls.

Anyone who made bold to protest at the lack of governmental help was casually labelled 'Sanghi' or 'paarpaan' — the typical stickers for anyone opposed to the Dravidian types.

Anyway, when the inner motivations of the government became evident, the common folks on X (formerly Twitter) and other platforms jumped into the arena and started their efforts at relief and rescue.

To be fair, DMK ministers like T R B Rajaa and Thangam Thenarasu were in the thick of coordinating the assistance. But their diligent work wasn't enough in a situation that called for many more hands.

The savvy folks on social media had to step in and help direct the governmental aid to the right areas. While all the focus was on South Chennai, it was only after public-spirited souls drew the attention of the corporation towards North Chennai — which was equally, if not more, affected — did they realise the enormity of the problem there.

By then, two full days had passed.

Milk of Kindness Flows, But Aavin’s Doesn’t

While the milk of kindness flowed from the general public, the literal milk was scarce. And the handling of the same by the government was quite revealing of its priorities. Again, they were more worried about their image.

The services of Aavin, the state-owned, largest milk supplier in Tamil Nadu, are understandably hit. It was inevitable in the circumstances as its main farms in Ambattur and Sholinganallur went under the water.

The government, rather than coming clean on the situation, said milk supply and services were fully restored. This claim did not tally with the reality on the ground, as milk supply was impossible in a few areas, and in a few others it was sold at a high premium.

This fascination for PR has also meant that certain top ministers, such as Udhyanidhi Stalin, E Velu, and K N Nehru, have hogged the media limelight, while the rest are nowhere to be seen.

Knowing that they have no place in the scheme of things as they exist now, the ward councillors have mostly stayed away from relief work. Their involvement and input, along with local knowledge, could have been crucial in normalising the situation more effectively.

But that was lost because of the unabashed eagerness to set a favourable political narrative.

Besides, the government has slipped badly administration-wise, too. Not having a separate electricity minister told as Thenarasu, who is holding additional charge of the department after Senthil Balaji's arrest, was overburdened.

The disaster management minister, K K S S R Ramachandran, was hardly seen.

What successive flood havoc has shown is that the state has learnt neither its political lessons nor ecological lessons. Instead, the administration is more focused on PR lessons.