It became possible for the DMK in 1967 to defeat the Congress, a major force in Indian politics, because its founder C.N. Annadurai succeeded in bringing together all opposition parties on a platform and had mutual respect for his alliance partners, recalled G. Viswanathan, Chancellor, Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT), who was a DMK member back then.
Addressing a function organised here to release his book, ‘ Anna Arumai Anna’ , a portrait of the DMK founder, Mr. Viswanathan pointed out that the Congress was not elected to power even though it polled more votes than the DMK.
“The DMK polled 62.03 lakh votes and won 137 seats and the Congress despite cumulatively polling 3,000 votes more it could win only 57 seats,” said Mr. Viswanathan, who was first elected to Parliament on DMK ticket given by Anna.
Mr. Viswanathan said it was Anna who coined the term ‘political decency’ (arasiyal nagarigam) in Tamil while unveiling the statue of Mahatma Gandhi in Vellore. “But political decency seemed to have disappeared from Tamil Nadu, but continues to prevail in other States,” he remarked.
Unparalleled
MDMK general secretary Vaiko, who released the book, said Anna had very few parallels as a writer and a leader who could use local idiom and history of liberation movements across the world in his writings and speech for political mobilisation.
Mr. Vaiko recalled that Anna’s family members never visited Fort St George and his adopted son Dr K.N. Parimalam had to take voluntary retirement to mobilise money for his daughter’s marriage. “Till he became the Chief Minister he did not even have a bank account,” he said.
Presiding over, former MP R. Chezhian said that it was Anna’s tenure as the member of the Rajya Sabha that laid the foundation stone for the DMK’s emergence in Indian politics.
Former Minister Dr H.V. Hande handed over to Mr. Viswanathan a copy of Anna’s letter to his ‘Thambis’ (younger brothers) he received from former Chief Minister M.G. Ramachandran.
Creative leader
CPI leader D. Pandian said Anna was a creative leader and probably the only leader who after freedom fighters of the country could attract people cutting across party lines.
“It is a great punishment for Tamil Nadu that he died before completion of his tenure in the Chief Minister’s office. His government could have created history had he lived,” said Mr Pandian.
Former Congress Legislative party leader S.R. Balasubramoniyam said Mr. Viswanathan should have written in detail many incidents to shed light on history as the incident that provoked Jawaharlal Nehru to say “nonsense” had been wrongly quoted in the book.
M. Krishnasswamy, former TNCC president and a classmate of Mr Viswanathan, said when he got an opportunity to meet the Pope, Anna urged the head of the Catholic church to release Mohan Ranade who fought for the independence of Goa. “After his release, Ranade visited Chennai to meet Anna. But he could only pay his tribute at his mausoleum,” he said and wondered why Anna was not conferred Bharat Ratna.
Meanwhile, DMK general secretary K Anbazhagan and party senior leader Duraimurugan, who were scheduled to participate in the event, stayed away ostensibly to avoid rubbing shoulders with Mr. Vaiko.
VIT Chancellor
G. Viswanathan releases his
book titled
'Anna Arumai Anna'
