Promises on paper, arrests at night: Kanimozhi says TVK has left nurses, farmers and workers waiting

DMK MP Kanimozhi Karunanidhi used a routine infrastructure inspection in Thoothukudi on Tuesday to deliver a wider charge against the TVK government: that promises made before the election have not followed nurses, farmers and workers into office.

Speaking to reporters after inspecting flyover construction at Keela Eral near Ettayapuram, Kanimozhi said officials expected the flyover to be completed by the end of next year, with three access points, and that six flyover projects were under way in Thoothukudi district. She received petitions from the public alongside Vilathikulam MLA G. V. Markandeyan.

On the reported fall in Tamil Nadu GST revenue, she questioned how a nationwide tax shared with the Union government could be laid at the door of the state government alone, pushing back on attempts to link the decline solely to TVK rule. Her sharper criticism was reserved for welfare and labour. She alleged the government had promised much to farmers, workers and nurses before the polls and was now not taking adequate steps to meet those demands.

She referred specifically to the recent nurses protest, saying the nurses were released at night along with DMK Kanyakumari district secretary Mano Thangaraj, but that release was not resolution. The demands raised by the nurses, she said, had still not been accepted, and she urged the government to address their grievances instead of treating dispersal as closure.

The nurses protest has become a test of the new government's handling of dissent. Reports from Chennai describe contract nurses seeking regularisation, equal pay for equal work and job security, alleging detentions after a demonstration near Egmore. Opposition leaders across parties have criticised the police action. The government has not published a point by point acceptance or rejection of the nurses charter at the time of publication.

For The Justice, the fact pattern matters more than the rhetoric. A government can dispute opposition language, but it cannot dispute a simple sequence: a promise, a protest, an arrest, a night release, and an unmet demand. Until the charter is answered in writing, Kanimozhi's charge will stand as the public record of this week.