The inauguration of the Rs 300-crore Periyar Library and Science Centre in Coimbatore has triggered a political battle over who deserves credit for public projects, with the DMK’s MK Stalin asserting that his government’s legacy will continue to benefit Tamil Nadu for years and TVK minister Aadhav Arjuna accusing the former chief minister of being unable to accept that another government is carrying forward his administration’s work.
At the heart of the exchange is a familiar political question: should credit for a public project go to the government that conceived and built it, or to the government that completes and inaugurates it?
For the DMK, the argument is about more than a library. Stalin is seeking to establish that the party’s development agenda and investments remain visible even after its electoral defeat, and that the new government is benefiting from its work. Vijay inaugurated the facility and toured the complex, interacting with schoolchildren visiting the library. Aadhav emphasised that the Chief Minister had done so without making a political spectacle of the occasion. Turning his attack on Stalin, Aadhav argued that if voters had genuinely credited the former Chief Minister with the projects he now claims, they would have re-elected him. He accused Stalin of jealousy and of continuing to take personal credit for government initiatives even after the DMK’s electoral defeat.
The Periyar centre therefore offers the ruling party an opportunity to demonstrate continuity in governance while also claiming its own mandate to put public assets to use. Aadhav listed several projects initiated under the AIADMK government between 2016 and 2021 that Stalin or other DMK leaders inaugurated after the party returned to power.
Taking a swipe at the new TVK government, Stalin said it could spend years inaugurating projects left behind by the DMK. He cited the Periyar centre alongside other projects he said were conceived under the DMK government, including the Kamarajar Library in Tiruchi, the Quaid-e-Millath Library in Tirunelveli, the Bharathidasan Knowledge Centre in Salem and the Anjalai Ammal Knowledge Centre planned in Cuddalore. “What is wrong with a new government continuing the previous government’s schemes without vendetta?” was the central question posed by the TVK minister.
