The Men Who Dare Alagiri

Two officials show how it is possible to fight corruption within the system even if the Union minister for chemicals and fertilisers takes umbrage

MADURAI At 8 pm, the phone rings. The secretary of the District Collector of Madurai is on the line. “The Collector will be in Goripalayam meeting people. You can join us there.” In half an hour, we reach and find U Sagayam in a slow-moving SUV, its windows rolled down. Sagayam is in the front seat, beside the driver. The rear seats are packed with officials. A police jeep carrying CRPF commandos trails the SUV. At every street corner, the convoy stops, and as people gather around the vehicle, Sagayam starts a conversation with them.

“Don’t sell your votes. Both giving and accepting a bribe is an offence,” he tells them. They will be voting five days later in the Tamil Nadu Assembly polls—on 13 April. Summoning a young girl from the crowd, he gives her his cellphone and says, “Call your father and tell him you are calling from the Collector’s phone. Ask him not to sell his vote.” The girl, a class XI student, obliges gladly.

Satisfied, Sagayam moves on. At 10.30 pm, his convoy halts near a government-run liquor shop. He has had a tip-off that money might be distributed to voters late at night from liquor shops in the area. Sagayam and his officials check the shop. It is deserted. By now, a local police team has arrived. Sagayam instructs the team to search vehicles, and then leaves for home at 11 pm. He stays in touch over the phone, calling the cops and other officials on the hunt in Madurai. “Stay alert. There are only a few days left for the polls, and we need to make sure there is no movement of cash,” he tells revenue officials who call. He will return to the city’s streets once more before a two-hour nap. At 5 am, he will rise to start another day.

This is a typical work day for 48-year-old Sagayam, who took charge as Madurai’s DC last month. Sagayam is one of four officials the Election Commission has posted in Madurai to ensure free and fair polls in the district. Madurai (rural) Superintendent of Police Asra Garg, Madurai Police Commissioner P Kannapan and IG South Zone MN Manjunatha are the others picked.

In recent times, Madurai has earned notoriety for the role of money in polls. During the by-polls to the Thirumangalam Assembly seat in January 2009, the ruling DMK allegedly paid up to Rs 5,000 per voter. The DMK’s Latha Athiyaman defeated her rival by 39,000 votes.

The DMK victory was credited to the elder son of Chief Minister Karunanidhi, K Alagiri, the architect of the now infamous ‘Thirumangalam model’—a euphemism for bribery—for victory.

The matter even found mention in a cable message sent from the US consulate in Chennai to the state department, which WikiLeaks accessed. Published by The Hindu on 16 March, it spoke of Alagiri having added ‘money’ to his ‘political muscle’ and used it ‘to a degree previously unseen in Tamil Nadu.’

Little wonder that Alagiri has come under the close scrutiny of the district administration. In just three weeks of the cash hunt, the Madurai rural police seized Rs 3.7 crore of unaccounted money during vehicle searches and another Rs 21 lakh from party functionaries trying to bribe voters. The police even stopped Alagiri’s convoy once and searched a vehicle occupied by his associates; no money was recovered, but it sent the DMK a signal. Civil activists are pleased. Many estimate that cash giveaways are down by at least 80 per cent. “Credit for this goes to the DC and police officials appointed by the EC,” says G Ganesan, a coordinator with People’s Watch, a human rights group.

A juice stall owner says the ruling party had roped in TV cable network staff to distribute cash in some areas. “They gave Rs 200 each, to me and my wife. But the situation is in no way comparable to what we witnessed during the Thirumangalam by-polls” [when cash was given away as newspaper inserts]. 

Alagiri is reportedly furious with the district officials, especially Sagayam and Asra Garg. He has threatened to take them to court on the charge that they instigated officials to file ‘false cases’ against him. He took on Sagayam soon after he assumed charge as DC, alleging that he was campaigning for a change in government. A petition was filed at the Madras High Court by an alleged DMK sympathiser, charging the DC with violating EC rules (it was dismissed). In another incident, Madurai Revenue Divisional Officer S Suhumaran complained to the EC that Sagayam was forcing him to file cases against Alagiri and his men. The EC issued a directive to the state government ‘to initiate disciplinary proceedings for a major penalty’ against Suhumaran.

In a more bizarre case, the election officer for Melur, M Kalimuthu, a tehsildar, lodged a complaint against Alagiri and his men, alleging that he was assaulted by them as he recorded the minister’s visit to a temple. A case was registered against Alagiri and his crew, but Kalimuthu recanted and told the EC that he was not assaulted, that the complaint was fabricated.

While the incidents reveal Alagiri’s clout in Madurai, Sagayam and Asra appear unfazed. They were inducted from obscure jobs. Sagayam was serving as managing director of New Tirupur Area Development Corp after being shunted out as the DC of Namakkal, where he’d made news with his rural programmes and got into trouble with the Rasipuram MLA and deputy speaker of the Tamil Nadu Assembly, VP Duraiswamy.

Under his rural programme, Sagayam would spend a night in each village collecting petitions and redressing grievances. “We used to settle issues such as non-receipt of old age pension and patta transfer in a matter of hours and issue relevant orders on the spot,” he recalls. The government issued him a transfer order when he left for Mussoorie for his Indian Administrative Service induction training (a Group I officer of the Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission, he was promoted to the IAS in 2007 with retrospective effect from 2001). His assets, as disclosed while in Namakkal: a house worth Rs 9 lakh and a bank balance of Rs 7,172.  “My father was a farmer, and my mother, a housewife. But my parents taught me honesty. My mother never let us even pick up mangoes that fell from another man’s tree,” says Sagayam, who has seen about 17 posts in his 19 years of government service. At each, he has left his mark as an honest officer. As District Revenue Officer in Kanchipuram, he controlled illegal sand mining and ordered the closure of a Pepsi plant after impurities were found in 7-Up bottles. As Deputy Commissioner, civil supplies, Chennai, he ordered the seizure of domestic LPG cylinders being misused for commercial purposes. In two days, over 4,000 cylinders were seized.

Asra, a 2004 batch IPS officer, also has a fierce reputation. Last month, he registered a case against the DMK Kottampatti union secretary Rajendran, said to be an associate of Alagiri, on charges of distributing money to voters. As Superintendent of Police in the communally sensitive Tirunelveli district, where he served for over two years, he enforced law and order effectively and prevented caste clashes.

Asra hit headlines when he was deputed on election duty to the Tiruchendur constituency, where a by-poll was held in December 2009. He slapped a case against the DMK candidate Anita Radhakrishnan and his supporters found soliciting votes more than 24 hours after campaigning had ended. He also seized a car of Radhakrishnan’s son for illegally transporting Rs 10 lakh worth of liquor.

The Patiala born 31-year-old engineering graduate reactivated the Tirunelveli District Police Cooperative Thrift and Credit Society Ltd, making it pay dividends after 18 long years. Before the EC assignment, he was with the 6th battalion of Tamil Nadu Special Police in Madurai.   

It is such integrity that has made Sagayam, Asra and other EC-appointed officials thorns in Alagiri’s flesh, giving him nightmares he didn’t imagine. With the Thirumangalam model rendered ineffective, it will be interesting to see how the DMK fares in the region.

corruptionDMKK Alagiri