Winds of change in Dravidian politics

Santosh Kumar

However harsh it may sound, the truth is that the two Dravidian parties which dominated Tamil Nadu politics for most of the post-Independence period needed the untimely demise of Puratchi Thalaivi J Jayalalithaa to bring in a transitional change in their pecking order. Otherwise how can one explain the change of guard in the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam after almost half a century? 

 To be precise for 48 years, ever since the death of its founder CN Annadurai on February 3, 1969, the voice of DMK was synonymous with that of patriarch M. Karunanidhi. During Annadurai's time it was the general secretary who used to call the shots. But once Kalaignar, as Karunanidhi is popularly referred to, became the president of the party, his became the final say in everything that mattered in the party. 

Though the nonagenarian had given enough indications that younger son and party treasurer MK Stalin would ultimately succeed him, Karunanidhi in the past had never shown any inclination to hand over power in the real sense or set any time frame for such a change. The 92-year-old himself was in hospital at the time of Jayalalithaa's death and must have sensed the changing winds of time  sweeping across Tamil Nadu. Not that he has abdicated. He will remain party president while party bylaws have been amended to create the post of a working president for Stalin. 

Back in the early 1970s, Karunanidhi had consciously brought his elder son Mu Ka Muthu, from his first wife, to counter the late MG Ramachandran, both on celluloid and in the political arena. MGR had fallen out with Karunanidhi and had floated his own party in 1972. Mu Ka Muthu, who had a voice very similar to MGR, flopped at the box office and failed to take off on the political front despite all the fanfare with which he was boosted up by the DMK cadres. It took some time for Karunanidhi to realise his mistake, but by that time MGR and his AIADMK were flying high. The rest, as they say, is Dravidian folklore.  

Stalin, who took charge as the party working president after general secretary and senior leader K Anbazhakan announced the decision, addressed the general council and said: “I am taking charge as the party working president with a heavy heart as our Thalaivar (leader) is not well. So I am not here to say thanks or feel happy, but humbly accept the general council's decision.” Unlike Sasikala, on the other side, Stalin is no novice to politics. He does not have to undergo apprenticeship in party management at this stage as is the case with Sasikala who is undergoing familiarisation programmes with lower and middle-rung party workers. Sixty-three-year-old Stalin has been active in the party for over four decades. He started off forming the youth wing of the party. During the Emergency, he was arrested under the then infamous and draconian Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA) and spent a year behind bars. 

Ever since V Gopalasamy, better known as Vaiko, who now heads the Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, was expelled from the DMK in 1993, there was only one leader, his father, above Stalin. Elder brother Alagiri did not find much favour with their father and was subsequently shunted to Madurai. Hence the way was cleared for Stalin to rise in Chennai. He proved to be an able administrator during his stint as the first elected Mayor of Chennai and held the post of Deputy Chief Minister when the DMK was in power in 2006. Though still under the towering shadow of his father, Stalin has held his own both in Chennai and the districts through his popular road shows. Many attribute the DMK's stellar performance during the last Assembly elections winning 89 out of 232, to Stalin's leadership. The party had won only 29 seats in the 2011 elections. It is all the more important because wheelchair-bound Karunanidhi hardly campaigned.

The task before Stalin is cut out. Political observers feel that he and his party are better placed right now.  There is no structural leadership in the AIADMK. The party revolved around the fulcrum that was Amma. There is no leader in that party who can claim any sort of mass base. Hardly anyone rose from the ranks and all of them were just handpicked by Jayalalithaa. The Tamil populace did not vote for them, they voted for their Amma. Even considering the hearsay that Sasikala had a major say in the selection of candidates in elections, she cannot claim any sort of loyalty from any of them. 

It is in this context that one has to see the efforts by her henchmen and those who are afraid of their very survival in state politics to trump up the same sort of hysteria around Chinnamma too. The DMK still has leaders with a mass base and a healthier organisation. Karunanidhi has been accused of promoting his family. He had to pay a price for the misdeeds of his grand nephews, the Maran brothers, and later tried to keep a distance from them. Stalin more or less has a clean image compared to daughter Kanimozhi. Stalin will have to win over Alagiri, who holds court in the southern districts of the state. The immediate test for both Sasikala and Stalin will be elections to the over 1.31 lakh posts in various urban and rural local bodies. The elections have been put on hold following a Madras High Court order citing certain irregularities in the election process. The AIADMK had already announced a candidates list while Jayalalithaaa was in hospital, claiming that Amma had approved it. Whether it will hold with Sasikala in charge is to be seen. 

The immediate bone of contention will be Jallikkattu, the popular bull-taming sport held during the Tamil new year, Pongal, just a few days away on January 15. The Supreme Court had banned the sport in 2014, following complaints from animal welfare activists who claimed that the ritual was an act of cruelty. When it comes to Jallikkattu, all Dravidian parties are united. The DMK has already launched protests in various parts of the state for resumption of the sport. It will be interesting to see how the AIADMK under Sasikala reacts now. It is an annual ritual more than a sport for the farming community of the state which is under duress following a severe drought that threatens the whole state. The coming week will see who succeeds in taming the bull, politically or otherwise. 

The writer is a senior journalist