The stunt republic: when government becomes a photo-op, the law takes a back seat

A government that governs by the camera will, sooner or later, break the law for the camera. That is what happened this week when a TVK MLA climbed into the driver's seat of a government bus carrying around 30 commuters during a scheme launch — without, the transport department is now probing, a valid licence to drive it. The bus was full of real people. The stunt was real too. Only the legality was missing. Look at the pattern and it stops looking like an accident. The Chief Minister launches the expanded Vettri Payanam Thittam by playing conductor and handing out free tickets, while his MLA plays driver. Weeks earlier, the government issued an order exempting the Public (Law and Order) department from the RTI Act — and revoked it within days after a storm of protest. A directive on student protests was withdrawn. A Chief Minister's Office appointment was cancelled. Announce, backlash, retreat, repeat: this is governance as performance, where the press release comes first and the legality is checked later, if at all. The defenders will say it was harmless — a celebration, a moment of joy, a leader connecting with the people. But connect the dots honestly. An unlicensed driver at the wheel of a public bus is not a celebration; it is a violation of the Motor Vehicles Act, the same Act under which ordinary drivers are fined and prosecuted every single day. The thirty commuters on that bus were not extras in a film. They were citizens the state is duty-bound to protect — some of them women, for whose benefit the very scheme was launched. Periyar taught that self-respect begins with refusing to be treated as a subject of spectacle. A government that uses its citizens as props in its own launch videos has forgotten that lesson. Welfare is not a photo-op. A bus scheme is not a film set. And a lawmaker is not above the law — he is, in the plainest reading of the Constitution, its servant. The probe ordered into the MLA's licence must not become another performance: announced loudly, buried quietly. Publish the findings. Name the officer who cleared the bus. And make it plain that the next stunt will cost the stunter — because the people of Tamil Nadu deserve governance, not a show.