Tamil Nadu: political history
This is a collection of articles archived for the excellence of their content. |
Chief Ministers of Tamil Nadu
1952-Feb 2017: See graphic.
See graphic:
Chief Ministers of Tamil Nadu, 1952-2016
Memorial on the Marina
From: D Govardan, In the end, Dravidian quartet are neighbours in beach sand, August 9, 2018: The Times of India
Even in death, M Karunanidhi was a fighter, the last battle being for his final resting place. And when his coffin was lowered into the Marina sands, it marked the completion of a jigsaw, a quartet of Dravidian chief ministers.
Those DMK cadres who wailed that they’ve been orphaned by Karunanidhi’s death can take heart in that their ‘thalaivar’ will be resting next to his mentor C N Annadurai. And they cannot ignore that his other neighbours are MGR and J Jayalalithaa.
The midnight court battle over allocating space on Marina brought out the old bitterness between Karunanidhi and Jayalalithaa, but death seems to have mended fences which the leaders couldn’t when alive.
When it comes to MGR, however, DMK cadres don’t feel so bad. After all, the two leaders have been more than civil even after their political split. When MGR was in a US hospital fighting for his life, Karunanidhi had appealed to forget the years of their rivalry (that incidentally kept Karunanidhi out of power for almost 12 years) and relive their years of friendship. In fact, Karunanidhi ensured that MGR got a grand memorial on the Marina.
The two couldn’t forget the symbiosis their association yielded: Karunanidhi wrote dialogues pregnant with Dravidian ideology and MGR delivered them to the masses. The party grew, and so did MGR. But Karunanidhi couldn’t allow the star to outshine the rising sun.
Had Anna been alive, fell many Dravidian thinkers, the split would have never happened. So, it is only consoling for old Dravidian fans that Anna rests in the vicinity of the other three leaders.
Together, the quartet wrote much of post-Independence Tamil Nadu’s political history. Since 1967, the DMK and the AIADMK have alternated in power. Though Annadurai had less than two years at the helm, between 1967 and 1969, his principles of self-respect, social justice and state rights became the guiding principles of Karunanidhi, and to an extent, MGR and Jayalalithaa.
Karunanidhi, stood by Anna’s principles but had his own way of getting things done. While Anna moved away from his political mentor Periyar’s policy of not fighting an electoral battle, he spent his whole political life fighting the Congress. On the other, Karunanidhi ended up aligning with the Congress within two years of taking over the mantle in 1969. But, he remained to social justice and federalism.
MGR, during his ten-year rule from 1977, put social welfare before social justice. Karunanidhi took lessons from MGR and carried forward welfare which soon moved from being popular to populist. And Jayalalithaa mastered in the art of populism, doling out electronic goods and goats with equal ease.
Christians
2016: Bishops back DMK
The Times of India, May 07 2016
Arockiaraj Johnbosco
The TN Bishops' Council announcement that it will support the DMK-Congress alliance has brought the Church's fear of the BJP to the fore. Though the BJP isn't a key contender this election, Christian leaders say the AIADMK has an affinity for the saffron party's ideology and could strike up an alliance with it in future.
Community leaders haven't forgotten the anti-conversion Bill the AIADMK brought into force in 2002, only to repeal it later. In TN, Christians account for 6.12% of the population and most of them live in the southern districts of Kanyaku mari, Tirunelveli and Tuticorin.
Without any party of their own, Chris tians preferred parties that backed their cause or promised to take up their cause. The Catho lic Church has su-pported the DMK, barring 2011 because of the spectrum scam and the Sri Lanka conflict.
Another reason for the Church not taking an overt political role is that the religion is highly institutionalised. Many hospitals and educational institutions are run by Christian organisations, and the Church trusts the DMK to protect them.The DMK is perceived to be more supportive of government employees and a good number of Christians are government employees.
Cinema and politics in Tamil Nadu
Some important cineastes- turned- politicians
D Govardan, Nov 27, 2019: The Times of India
From D Govardan, January 1, 2018: The Times of India
See graphic:
Some important cineastes- turned- politicians
Tamil Nadu's love for actors turned politicians
1967: MG Ramachandran becomes member of the legislative assembly on a DMK ticket
1972: MGR starts a new party called All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam
1982: Jayalalithaa joins AIADMK when MGR was the chief minister
1987: Following MGR's death, Jayalalithaa takes over the reins of the party
2005: Actor Vijayakanth along the lines of other regional Dravidian parties forms the Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam(DMDK)
2018: Kamal Haasan launches his party Makkal Needhi Maiam
The era of cineastes
Madan Mohan, Dec 6, 2016: The Times of India
Dravidian drama: Film to politics
Few evoke such awe in the peninsula as film stars and cricketers. Capitalising on this appeal, some have ventured into politics, but history has shown that having made a mark in cinema or cricket does not guarantee a smooth passage to power.
South of the Vindhyas, a handful of film personalities have made it to the top league in politics. In undivided Andhra Pradesh, N T Rama Rao dominated the landscape for years. Kannada star Rajkumar too wielded influence on the political culture of the state though he remained on the sidelines. However, the manner in which Tamil film personalities have held sway has no parallel. This was chiefly because the DMK used films to propagate its core ideology--uplifting of the downtrodden and upending the caste-ridden social hierarachy .
Party founder C N Annadurai and his successor Karunanidhi saw the power of the medium and used it effectively to connect with the crowds. M G Ramachandran who starred in some of the films that served as vehicles for DMK propaganda, was revered by millions, a following that he converted into a mass base in politics by launching AIADMK.
But others with a sizeable fan following who entered the arena, were not able to generate the same appeal. Sivaji Ganesan, who ruled Tamil cinema for decades, dab bled in politics but never made it big. It was no different for Karthik, a popular actor.Vijayakanth founded the DMDK and made inroads, but his political career has fizzled out. Rajnikanth, who has an appeal akin to MGR's, let wiser counsel prevail and gave public life a wide berth.
Jayalalithaa's achievement is thus all the more remarkable considering the odds the more remarkable considering the odds she overcame. Everything she represented stood against the mores of a largely conservative, patriarchal society rooted in Dravidian ideology . It was ironic that the upholders of the feminist ideals of E V R Periyar, founder of the Dravidian movement, had qualms about accepting a woman as their leader. Only after her mentor MGR ordered his cadre to accord her due respect did she rise and eventually take over the party on his death. But hypocrisy and sexism continued to dog her, as in the assembly on March 25, 1989, when Jayalalithaa was attacked and disrobed by DMK legislators.
Impact on politics
JULY 1, 2015, The New York Times,
Amma means ‘‘mother,’’ and in Tamil Nadu, it’s the nickname for an indestructible politician named Jayalalithaa Jayaram, a former actress who is now the general secretary of the state’s ruling party, the A.I.A.D.M.K. Until Sept. 27, when she was sentenced to four years in prison, she was also the state’s chief minister. The charge was ‘‘disproportionate assets’’: the court found that her wealth exceeded her known sources of income by 660 million rupees, or around $10 million. A raid on her house found 10,500 saris, 750 pairs of shoes and 66 pounds of gold. It is a pittance compared with the 10-billion-rupee hauls some North Indian public servants are said to have amassed. Nevertheless, she was the first chief minister in India to be ejected from office for corruption.
Across the state, her followers pelted buses with stones and set them on fire. At Perungalathur junction, on the highway to Chennai, people lay down in the road and tried to persuade bus drivers to turn the buses on them. ‘‘Run us over, run us over!’’ they yelled. ‘‘Why should we live when our Amma is in jail?’’ According to the A.I.A.D.M.K., hundreds of people committed suicide in response to her conviction, dozens by self-immolation.
How to account for this histrionic devotion? You don’t find people begging bus drivers to kill them in Kerala, the state just next door. One explanation is movie mania. Before she went into politics, Jayalalithaa was the most popular Tamil movie actress of her time, the heroine in more than 100 films. She followed the model of her mentor and co-star, an actor-politician named Marudhur Gopalan Ramachandran but more commonly known by his initials M.G.R. He ruled Tamil Nadu for 11 years, and since his death in 1987, Jayalalithaa and her archenemy, a wily 92-year-old screenwriter named Muthuvel Karunanidhi, have taken turns running the state. As the head of the D.M.K. — the party to which M.G.R. belonged until their rivalry forced a split — Karunanidhi has built a cult following on par with Jayalalithaa’s. The two of them rule as if in a melodrama, having each other arrested, dropping snide insults and wild accusations, destroying each other’s pet projects. The D.M.K. and the A.I.A.D.M.K. have almost no policy differences, but no other party can gain a foothold.
Three days before Jayalalithaa’s appeal, A.I.A.D.M.K. loyalists were staging mass prayers in temples, mosques and churches. If she were to win, she would resume her seat as chief minister in time to contest the 2016 elections. If she were to lose, she would remain banished from politics for 10 years. In Madurai, party disciples broke 1,008 coconuts. In Coimbatore, 2,008 marched with urns of milk on their heads. At Chellapillai Rayar temple, 508 women lighted an equal number of oil lamps. The courtyard filled with the smell and haze of incense and the sound of hundreds of tiny brass bells. The politicians posed for photographs with a framed portrait of Jayalalithaa.
Their prayers were fueled by a dual hope: that God would take mercy on Jayalalithaa and that Jayalalithaa would take note of their efforts on her behalf. The best way to get her attention was to put on a performance of their own.
You know you’ve entered Tamil Nadu when you begin to see Jayalalithaa’s face everywhere: a double-chinned Mona Lisa, her long, dark hair pulled back in a demure chignon. In the cities, her party members line the avenues with giant Jayalalithaa billboards to prove their fealty, and her likeness stares out from posters all over the villages, where her biggest vote bank resides. Her face appears on the outside of the free laptops she distributes to students and then again on the desktops. There are Amma pharmacies for subsidized drugs and Amma canteens for 5-rupee meals; soon there will be Amma cinemas for cheap movies. The ubiquity of that face gives the state the feel of a cartoon dictatorship, much to the annoyance of Tamils indifferent to her charms.
Chennai in particular is a city whose self-image is genteel, cultured and intellectual, and some there are prone to deep embarrassment over the excesses of Amma worship. It is also the capital of the Tamil film industry, the southern counterpart to Hindi-language Bollywood in the north. Its blockbusters are just as bombastic, and its fans are even more fervent: at every new release by the Tamil action star Rajinikanth, his admirers bathe posters of him in milk, a treatment typically reserved for idols in temples. But no actor has dominated Tamil culture like M.G.R., who is like a messianic hybrid of Elvis Presley and Ronald Reagan.
In the movies, M.G.R. was a swashbuckler: fencing with the dastardly, rescuing the innocent, dancing, romancing, laughing madly. Jayalalithaa, born in 1948, grew up in his thrall, but wary of the cinema. Her father died when she was 2, and her mother, Sandhya, was a struggling second-rung actress who rarely came home. At 16, Jayalalithaa was confident and voluptuous, a talented dancer with a knowing air. Sandhya’s colleagues found her alluring and offered her parts in movies. Though Jayalalithaa dreamed of becoming a lawyer, her mother pushed her to turn down a college scholarship and accept. One of her first films was ‘‘One in a Thousand,’’ a starring role opposite M.G.R.
When M.G.R. stepped into the studio, everyone was expected to stand in respect. But on the set of ‘‘One in a Thousand,’’ Jayalalithaa sat cross-legged and kept right on reading her book. M.G.R. was intrigued. Despite their three-decade age difference, she turned out to be his perfect on-screen foil: flirty one moment, haughty the next, worldly and earthy and vivacious. Rolling in the grass in a song sequence from the film ‘‘The Sacred Dwelling,’’ he pounces for a kiss, only to end up with a flower in his mouth; she bites the petals from his lips and flings them aside with her teeth. That they were lovers was an open secret, though M.G.R. was married to a former co-star named Janaki. Over the next eight years Jayalalithaa and M.G.R. starred together in 28 films.
By the time they met, M.G.R. was strongly associated with the Dravidian Progress Federation, or D.M.K. The party grew out of a movement against the brutal social order of the era in which lower caste Tamils were denied public resources and often forbidden even to wear shoes or ride bicycles. Dravidian activists protested the dominance of Brahmins in Tamil Nadu and of Hindi-speaking northerners on the national level. Fatefully, the D.M.K. came of age just as the cinema craze took hold in India, and many of its ideologues were screenwriters, M.G.R.’s close friend Karunanidhi among them.
The D.M.K. packaged its propaganda in the form of popular action entertainments, using catchy songs to instill Tamil pride, comedy to mock its enemies and extravagant oratory to attract a following, coding its ideas in allegory to evade the censors of the ruling Congress Party. The D.M.K. made M.G.R. a star: his madcap energy gave their films the wild charisma they needed to carry their message. The party cultivated an image of M.G.R. as ‘‘the savior of the poor,’’ the journalist Sampath Kumar told me. ‘‘And he became intoxicated with that image.’’
M.G.R. became the face of the party, and what a face it was: jowly in a way that was somehow dashing, with a smile that flitted dangerously between mischief and love. It was a stroke of luck, then, when M.R. Radha, a rival actor, unaccountably shot M.G.R. in the neck just before the 1967 elections, and widespread sympathy for his injury helped push the D.M.K. into power. Two years later, M.G.R. used his party clout to propel Karunanidhi to the chief minister’s chair, a prize for having given him his big break in films.
The two looked like co-celebrities in chief, superstar and screenwriter, with a shared uniform of sunglasses and wide smiles. But in power, their friendship soured. In 1972 M.G.R. founded the A.I.A.D.M.K. and took most of the movie magic with him. The rabble-rousing songs he had lip-synced in his films — ‘‘How long will they fool us/in this land of ours?’’ — became his party’s anthems. His fan clubs doubled as party chapters, in a ready-made organization that in 1977 was instrumental in winning him the chief minister’s seat. M.G.R.’s government has been hailed for the success of his Nutritious Meal program, which provides free lunches for school children. His rule was also characterized by police abuse, an intolerance of dissent and economic policies that nearly always favored the wealthy. But the movies, coupled with M.G.R.’s knack for publicizing his personal acts of generosity, convinced his rural devotees that they had an intimate bond with him. They re-elected him until the end of his life.
By then, at M.G.R.’s invitation, Jayalalithaa had joined the A.I.A.D.M.K. She had shown little previous interest in politics, and her entry into a Dravidian party was made especially unlikely by the fact that she was a Brahmin. But she was a natural leader: glamorous and intelligent, with a command of English and Hindi that served her well as a legislator in Delhi. The men in M.G.R.’s inner circle saw her as a threat and tried to shut her out. After M.G.R. died on Dec. 24, 1987, she revealed the depths of her tenacity. While M.G.R.’s body lay in state, Jayalalithaa secured a position just behind his head, where the cameras couldn’t avoid her, making her seem more prominent even than his wife, Janaki. For two full days she kept her post, even as Janaki’s entourage pinched her and stomped on her feet. When his funeral procession departed, Jayalalithaa tried to climb onto the gun carriage bearing his body. On live television, Janaki’s nephew struck her and pushed her to the ground.
For four years she fought her enemies inside and outside the party; each insult only seemed to harden her resolve. In 1991 she began the first of three terms as chief minister.
One evening out on Chennai’s Marina Beach, I met a burly fisherman named Sathiavaan. He greeted me happily when he saw me examining his net and catamaran and spoke with pride of the danger and difficulty of his work. When I asked him, through an interpreter, about Jayalalithaa, he started to cry. ‘‘The only person who helps the fishermen is Amma,’’ he said. ‘‘We felt like orphans when she went to jail. She’s like the sea that gives us our livelihood.’’
All along the beach waved tattered A.I.A.D.M.K. flags on wind-bent sticks. The tsunami of 2004 hit hard here during Jayalalithaa’s second term. In a nearby concrete slum, two fishermen’s wives praised her response. ‘‘Immediately she rushed here and investigated, talked to us, consoled us,’’ one said. On the steps of a small church hidden in a maze of shanties, I asked a woman named Kala about the corruption case that had knocked Jayalalithaa out of office. ‘‘What she did was wrong, but who has not committed mistakes?’’ Kala said. ‘‘We love her because she’s a woman. A lonely woman like us.’’
While M.G.R. built a film persona that he could import almost directly to politics, Jayalalithaa had to make a clean break. ‘‘To live down the image of an actress is very important, because an actress is by definition a public woman, a loose woman,’’ the social historian V. Geetha told me. ‘‘She had to desexualize herself.’’ In her first term, she started wearing body-sheathing capes over her saris and asked voters to call her ‘‘sister.’’ By her second term she had stopped wearing jewelry altogether. That’s when she began to be known as ‘‘Amma’’: a stern and distant yet endlessly generous mother, a screen for all her children to project their hopes onto.
Much of her style of rule comes directly from the M.G.R. playbook: populist, authoritarian, tantalizingly inaccessible. In her first term, a bureaucrat who questioned one of her transactions was disfigured in an acid attack; Jayalalithaa has denied involvement. In recent years, she has silenced her critics with constant defamation cases. Her handpicked replacement after her conviction, a party loyalist named O. Panneerselvam, wept as he was sworn in as chief minister and refused to occupy her office or sit in her chair. He presented the state budget in a briefcase emblazoned with her face. Her party discipline is total. ‘‘It’s a man’s world here,’’ said A. Arulmozhi, the propaganda secretary for another Dravidian party. ‘‘Sometimes I feel that the reason women in Tamil Nadu enjoy Jayalalithaa in power is that they see how she controls men, keeps them at a distance, falling at her feet.’’
You would think that given all this emotional mayhem, Tamil Nadu would be a mess, but in fact it’s one of the best-run states in India. Jean Drèze and Amartya Sen, in their book ‘‘An Uncertain Glory,’’ an analysis of economic development in India, single out Tamil Nadu as a paragon of administrative innovation among Indian states, ranking it best in the country for the quality of its public services. Under Jayalalithaa and Karunanidhi’s governance, Chennai has gained a reputation as the Detroit of India (in the car-manufacturing-hub sense, not in the bankrupt-and-abandoned sense). Her raw instinct for political survival was enough to put her in office. Once there, she revealed a surprising talent for administration. ‘‘She schooled herself, and to that extent one has to salute her,’’ the journalist Sadanand Menon told me. ‘‘She has worked to understand procedures, rules and regulations, policies.’’
But her continuing success among voters perhaps owes less to her management skills than to her genius at branding. In 2006, immediately before an election that seemed sure to go Jayalalithaa’s way, Karunanidhi promised free televisions for all. He won, and a freebie arms race commenced. Since Jayalalithaa resumed office in 2011, she has given away or heavily subsidized laptops, saris, fans, rice, cows, goats, food processors and bicycles, and branded all of it with her face and the name Amma: Amma salt, Amma cement, Amma drinking water. Some of the giveaways, like free neonatal kits for new mothers, are certainly worthwhile. But the practice has become so brazen that politicians discuss it with open cynicism. I suggested to Kanimozhi, Karunanidhi’s daughter and a member of Parliament, that the parties are running out of things to give away. ‘‘Maybe fridges,’’ she said wryly. ‘‘But the only thing is we don’t have enough electricity. Maybe we should do cupboards.’’
In attaching her Amma persona to every welfare program, Jayalalithaa now embodies the state in her role as the mother of all Tamils, and all good things appear to flow from her largess. Even as she stood convicted, few disputed that she was right then at the very pinnacle of her power.
One morning I met Shihan Hussaini, a karate teacher, archer, sculptor, painter and sometime actor, at his studio near Elliot’s Beach in Chennai. ‘‘Tamil Nadu revolves around sensation, revolves around drama, revolves around legends,’’ he said. ‘‘Tamil Nadu people, they lap it up.’’
I first heard of Hussaini after he made a double-size but otherwise perfectly lifelike sculpture of Jayalalithaa’s head out of 11 liters of his own and his students’ coagulated blood. But he was quick to draw a line. ‘‘I’m not one of those fools that set themselves on fire,’’ he said. ‘‘I’m an educated guy. There are millions and millions of men, women and children who love her equally or in fact more than me. But I’m able to express it in the right way.’’
The latest way he chose to express his love for Jayalalithaa was to have himself crucified. He invited the press to his studio to watch his karate students help him hammer six-inch nails though his hands and feet. Then he delivered a speech about the glories of Amma until he passed out. Jayalalithaa wrote him a letter, telling him that she was terribly disturbed and asking him to please never do anything like it again. ‘‘I was touched,’’ Hussaini whispered. ‘‘Touched! I’ve kept that letter very, very safe. I’m going to frame it and put it up somewhere.’’
A month after the crucifixion, he wore adhesive bandages on each side of his hands. I asked how long it had taken before he could use them again. ‘‘Surprisingly, very soon,’’ he said cheerily. Then his face darkened. ‘‘But my feet are giving me a lot of problems. The heels are — it’s very painful.’’
In the A.I.A.D.M.K., political engagement is physical engagement. It begins with the bodies of the politicians themselves: their performances on-screen, whatever physical relationship they had with each other, their athletic struggles in the political arena. The people do the rest. ‘‘There’s something about blood bonds in Tamil Nadu politics,’’ the journalist Sadanand Menon told me. After M.R. Radha shot M.G.R., he said, fans lined up across the state to donate blood. And when M.G.R. came out of the hospital, he started addressing his audiences as ‘‘blood of my blood.’’ When he started his party, he called on his followers to prove their loyalty by being tattooed with his new flag, and thousands complied. When Jayalalithaa set up a tent on Marina Beach and fasted publicly for 80 hours in protest of interstate water policy, thousands joined her. At every letdown, it seemed, A.I.A.D.M.K. supporters tried to set themselves on fire.
Several Jayalalithaa skeptics told me that they doubt her party members care for her at all. They just know that mad acts of political theater are how things get done in Tamil Nadu. ‘‘I don’t think it’s about people liking her or liking Karunanidhi,’’ the playwright Gnani Sankaran said. ‘‘The people have no options. Because Jayalalithaa’s the boss, they totally depend on her.’’ What looks like fervency is perhaps merely a practical result of being trapped in a state with only two viable parties that are indistinguishable except for the personalities of their commanders.
This still doesn’t explain the self-immolations; surely there is no pragmatic angle on those. Yet Sankaran insisted to me that there was. ‘‘Party functionaries organize these things,’’ he said. ‘‘They’re not spontaneous.’’ A suicide, I said, seems like an extreme thing to organize. ‘‘They can organize extreme things,’’ he said. ‘‘Using money. Using emotion.’’ I first dismissed this as conspiracy theory. But as the months after Jayalalithaa’s conviction passed and the suicides continued, the party kept boasting of the tens of millions of rupees in compensation it gave to victims’ families, which surely only encourages more suicides. I often heard party men exaggerate the number of deaths; it’s something they’re clearly proud of. In statements issued from her home in the heart of Chennai, Jayalalithaa is careful to express her shock and dismay whenever her constituents self-destruct in her name.
The day before the verdict was quiet, so I went to the movies. Jayalalithaa made a cameo during the intermission. In a government ad, an old man complained that it never rained anymore, and a woman told him not to worry. Amma has been planting trees all over Tamil Nadu, and soon the rains will return. It sounded like her boldest giveaway yet. The ad closed with an M.G.R. song: ‘‘Tomorrow Is Ours.’’
Early on verdict day, I stopped by A.I.A.D.M.K. headquarters. A small crowd of hopeful fans had gathered, and a newscaster was clustering them together to use as a backdrop. One man in particular caught my eye: He wore a big black cowboy hat and a shiny white robe with the party symbol on it. It was only when I approached him that I saw he was missing three fingers on his left hand. His name was R. Rathanam, and he was the superintendent of police for a city called Salem, until the day in 2004 he chopped off his fingers with a machete and dropped them in the collection box at a local temple. ‘‘For Amma to win,’’ he said. I asked him how she responded to the gesture. ‘‘She suspended me from the force!’’ he said. Then he raved about how she covered the bill for his medical treatment.
Nearby, outside Jayalalithaa’s house, thousands were waiting for the verdict to be announced at 11 a.m. Everyone was performing for the news channels, shouting slogans: ‘‘Long live Amma!’’ ‘‘Revolutionary leader Amma!’’ ‘‘The savior of the people!’’ Often it seemed as if a shoving match was going to break out, as the fans elbowed one another to get in front of the cameras. But as the hour approached, the mood shifted. You couldn’t even call it anticipation: We had moved beyond that now. No news had come, and yet the whole street was swept in a wave of emotion, smiling, trading jokes, laughing.
And when the verdict came, right on time, no one stood up to make an announcement. The good news passed from mouth to ear, and a chain reaction of wild dancing passed through the mob until it became one leaping mass of joy. Amma won, Amma won, Amma was acquitted of all charges.
No one knew the judge’s rationale, but it hardly mattered. For hours, the crowd kept dancing and shouting and setting off firecrackers, their energies fueled by rumors that she would emerge from her house to greet them. She never did. Apparently the day was not auspicious for appearing in public. But the celebration raged on for as long as the cameras were rolling. After a while, it even started to rain.
Era ends in 2016 (does it?)
Kalyanaraman M, Curtains for film era in Tamil Nadu politics, Dec 7, 2016: The Times of India
Much as Jayalalithaa preferred to describe the AIADMK as the evolutionary culmination of the Dravidian movement, she relied on her movie star status only sparingly . Unlike the other Dravidian movement leaders like Anna, Karunanidhi and MGR who were involved in films, Jayalalithaa was not schooled in its ideology . Her rise in the Dravidian movement was more by association with MGR who saw her charisma and talent for organising; he put it to effective use. Nevertheless, in stature, she was second to none from the previous generation of leaders. “With Jayalalithaa's death, the era of such tall leaders backed by movie charisma may indeed be over in the state. Now we will concentrate on issues, not just glamour and hero worship,“ says film critic and historian Theodore Baskaran.
Baskaran points out that MGR and Jayalalithaa made it big in politics not because of their popularity . “Dravidian movement leaders like Annadurai and Karunanidhi had their own standing as political leaders. They did not gain an identity through films,“ he said. Baskaran traces the Dravid ian movement's relationship with performing arts. The activists staged plays that served as a vehicle for their reformist ideas and the plays were popular too. “One of the plays was `Parasakthi' which resonated with Tamil audiences. In 1952, a film producer made it into a film scripted by Karunanidhi, solely based on its business proposition,“ says Baskaran.
While producers sought to make a profit out of a set of popular ideas, the movement's leaders leveraged the mass appeal of films. Movie stars started appearing in `Dravidian' films and this further boosted the movement. But the crossover ended early .Baskaran points out that Sivaji Ganesan, who was as big a star as MGR, failed in politics. “His fan following, though huge, was heterogeneous politically unlike that of MGR,“ he says.
== Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM)== D Govardan, Nov 27, 2019: The Times of India
How Kamal Haasan's party performed
The film actor tuned politician launched his party Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) on February 21, 2018
MNM contested 40 seats in Lok Sabha elections, 39 in Tamil Nadu and one in Puducherry
It did not win a single seat, but garnered a vote share of over 3%
Rajini-Kamal star war reminds of MGR-Sivaji rivalry
M T Saju, January 3, 2018: The Times of India
HIGHLIGHTS
The entry of Rajini-Kamal into politics reminds us of MGR-Sivaji tussle of four decades ago.
Some observers feel that 'Rajinikanth is MGR and Kamal Haasan is Sivaji'.
Four decades ago, the political landscape of Tamil Nadu witnessed intense competition between actors: MGR and Sivaji Ganesan. Both had a huge fan base, but Sivaji lost out in the political race.
A similar competition is hotting up between two other superstars. A couple of months ago, Kamal Haasan decided to chart a political course+ , and a couple of days ago his arch-rival Rajinikanth followed suit+ .
The stage is set once again for the clash of two film titans intent on grabbing political space. While his charity work also helped MGR build up a loyal following, Sivaji failed to do so. His followers saw him as a great matinee idol, but were reluctant to support his political image. The entry of Rajini-Kamal into politics is working on a similar plot. Some observers feel that 'Rajini is MGR and Kamal is Sivaji.'
"Rajini has a huge fan following across Tamil Nadu. He is accessible to public and even considered a simple, straightforward person. Kamal is brilliant and honest but it will be a tough game for him in politics," said R Kannan, Dravidian scholar and author of "MGR: A Life" and "Anna: The Life and Times of C N Annadurai".
MGR showed great concern for public welfare and successfully used his movies to lay the foundation for his entry to politics.
"From the beginning, unlike Sivaji Ganesan, he (MGR) cultivated and promoted artists, directors, poets, producers and technicians who suited his professional and political ends. He patronised them and their careers became inextricably linked to his. In 1971, a generous MGR gave poet Pulamaipithan money to buy back his ancestral house that had been mortgaged," said Kannan.
Despite being a great actor, Sivaji Ganesan couldn't transfer his cinematic image to politics. But, the MGR-Sivaji Ganesan fight was long ago, on a socially and culturally different backdrop. Today's political landscape is different. "MGR was a success both in cinema and in politics. Actor-turned politician Vijayakanth succeeded a little bit in politics, but lost out later. Rajini has a great fan-following in the state. But, he is a very shy person. His success depends on how he is going to showcase his public life now," said Kannan.
At a time when even seasoned politicians like DMK working president M K Stalin have still not been given a clean chit by the public, it remains to be seen how actors like Kamal Haasan and Rajinikanth are going to win over the hearts of voters. "What Rajini needs is to build up interaction with the public. As an actor, he has done his job. But being a good politician is not easy and Rajini is new to it. But I believe he will put up a better show compared to Kamal Haasan in politics," said K Murugesan, a retired professor of politics.
Congress in Tamil Nadu
2016: No Congress MP left
The Times of India, May 27 2016
For 1st time, Cong has no LS or RS member from TN
“Tamil Nadu has become Congress-mukt in both Houses of Parliament,“ quipped a political commentator here on Thursday after the party failed to get a Rajya Sabha nomination with its senior partner DMK nominating two of its seniors to the upper House, scuppering the chances of former finance minister P Chidambaram.
The DMK-Congress alliance can win only two seats based on its strength in the assembly . With just eight seats, Congress is in no position to hope for an RS ticket.
While Congress drew a blank in the 2014 general elec tions in TN with AIADMK making a sweep of 37 seats and NDA winning the remaining two, the grand old party will now have no Rajya Sabha MP from the state either -for the first time in history.Former Union ministers Sudarsana Natchiappan and Mani Shankar Aiyar (nominated) retired recently .
Among the southern states, Tamil Nadu and the erstwhile undivided Andhra Pradesh had the largest Rajya Sabha members -18. technical presence in the Rajya Sabha then with three MPs: G K Moopanar, who had quit to form his Tamil Maanila Congress, Jayanthi Natarajan and Peter Alphonse, who also joined the TMC but continued to be counted as INC members.
Incidentally, though Post-bifurcation of Andhra, TN has emerged as the southern state with the largest representation in the Upper House. Yet, Congress has found itself in an unprecedented situation.
There was no Congress MP from TN in the Lok Sabha in the 1996-98 period after the party in alliance with AIADMK lost all 28 seats it contested. AIADMK contested in 11 Lok Sabha seats without success.
Congress, however, had a Congress contested 10 LS seats in Tamil Nadu in 1999, Aiyar (Mayiladuthurai) and Natchiappan (Sivaganga) were the only two elected.This had put Congress back on the parliamentary map of Tamil Nadu then.
However, TNCC general secretary D Selvam said not having representation from Tamil Nadu was no big deal.“Congress is a national party, and it will continue to have a voice in Parliament through MPs from other states conversant with TN issues,“ he said. “ DMK has no MPs in LS now and AIADMK had none in 1996,“ he added.
CPI, CPM: the left parties
1971-2015
D Govardan, April 1, 2019: The Times of India
From: D Govardan, April 1, 2019: The Times of India
From: D Govardan, April 1, 2019: The Times of India
"If I had not come across Periyar, I would have become a Communist,” former chief minister M Karunanidhi used to say often when in the company of Communist leaders. No wonder the comrades had a special place in his heart.
Earlier this month, Karunanidhi’s son and current DMK president M K Stalin prevailed upon the CPM and CPI to settle for a mere six assembly seats each. While the talks stretched over a few rounds before Stalin signed the deals, he was at no moment willing to let them go.
The leaders of both the CPI and the CPM made near identical statements, after signing the seat sharing agreement with the DMK alliance. “Definitely the numbers are way low than our expectations. But then, this election is different. We have to prevent the BJP from gaining a foothold in Tamil Nadu. More than numbers, it is ideology and policy that ruled our decision,” CPI state secretary R Mutharasan and CPM state secretary K Balakrishnan told the media at Anna Arivalayam, the DMK headquarters.
The might of the Left is dwindling, not just in Tamil Nadu but across the country, including in the pockets of their influence. Even the comrades accept it, but with a pinch of salt and loaded with self-assuring reasoning. But their secular values and loyal working class voter base make them an ideal ally. “Seat adjustments depends on the circumstances prevailing. Today the goal of communists is to ensure that a secular government comes to power and for that we have to prevent the BJP and its allied parties from winning. Elections and numbers are just one part of the communist movement’s struggle. Last time, we didn’t have a single MLA. Still the movement sustained itself. In the previous term, we had 10 MLAs. Numbers do not alter the course of our movement,” says G Sugumaran, state general secretary, CITU.
In the 1960s, the Left parties in Tamil Nadu inspired farm workers to demand a hike in wages from upper caste landlords. While farmers across the delta region joined in, the 1968 massacre of farmhands at Kizhvenmani, in erstwhile composite Thanjavur district left people shaken.
In the industrial belts of the state, the formation of unions and the party’s encouragement to ask for eight-hour work days struck a chord with people. Hence, the party has a dedicated following in pockets of the state such as north Chennai, where there is a significant presence of the workforce from mills. Their presence is also felt in Sivakasi, Madurai, Coimbatore and Tirupur, which are dominated by small, medium and large scale industrial units.
After more than 70 years of Independence, unions are still fighting to ensure basic wages, says E Ponmudi, president, CITU at MEPZ. “We have fought and won this battle against several units in MEPZ. It is not export processing zone. It is exploitation zone,” he says. “We have expanded our union’s presence to other export promotion zones at Oragadam and Sriperumbudur. The BJP is taking away the rights of workers through its proposed new labour laws. We will keep up our struggle,” he says.
Despite their reduced strength, the party workers do not bat an eyelid when it comes to work. “A Left party may have a mere 2,000 votes in an assembly segment, but all of them will be out on the field campaigning for the party or the alliance candidate. A party like the Congress, which may poll more votes, cannot dream of getting so many of its cadres on the ground,” a former R S S activist says.
Central Chennai CPM district secretary G Selva, says, “We are only workers, but we have pooled in money to print pamphlets to distribute among voters in all the constituencies in Chennai, even though our party is not contesting here.”
Amid the heat of election campaign, Selva had led a group of CPM supporters and held a protest in front of Madras University last week after a sexual harassment complaint by a girl student was attempted to be hushed and students who backed her were suspended. “As more students joined and protested, police lathicharged them. We had to intervene. That’s what we have stood for – the voice of the people,” he says.
Today, the BJP may think it can alter any laws and snatch away the rights of people and workers and assume no one will question. “It is forgetting that history has recorded enough revolts by even slaves that eventually turned the tables. We will prevail,” says Sugumaran. The Left leaders say their fight against class differences and exploitation is being taken up today by Rahul Gandhi, who is raising the same issues against the dominance of the Ambanis and Adanis.
The growth of the unorganised sector, thanks to the introduction of contract, sub-contract and outsourcing business models has thrown up fresh challenges and the communists are yet to come to terms on how to tackle this menace. Attempts by them to foray into the growing IT sector’s employee base too has failed. Above all, the growth of regional parties has sidelined the hold of the communists as the voice for social justice and downtrodden and the oppressed classes.
“In Tamil Nadu, the DMK and the AIADMK have hijacked the social justice and social welfare planks. With these parties alternatively in power, a large section of the people have stopped migrating towards the Left,” says M Kasinathan, political analyst.
“The communists have their own value. Whenever the DMK or the AIADMK talk about secularism, it gains value when the Left parties are part of the alliance. More than their numbers, it is for this goodwill that they are allotted seats,” he says.
December in TN political history
Dec 6, 2016: The Times of India
HIGHLIGHTS
December seems to be jinxed for Tamil Nadu as it witnessed yet another major loss.
Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa breathed her last on December 5.
AIADMK founder and charismatic actor-turned politician MGR died on December 24, 1987.
MGR died on December 24, 1987; his protege Jayalalithaa breathed her last on December 5.MGR died on December 24, 1987; his protege Jayalalithaa breathed her last on December 5.
December seems to be jinxed for Tamil Nadu as it witnessed yet another major loss with AIADMK supremo and Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa+ joining a list of iconic leaders whose end came in the last month of the year.
While AIADMK founder and charismatic actor-turned politician MGR died on December 24, 1987, his protege Jayalalithaa breathed her last yesterday (December 5), in a tragic coincidence of their end coming in the same month. Both leaders had also gone through prolonged period of illness before their end came.
C Rajagopalachari, the last Governor General of India, passed away on December 25, 1972 while rationalist leader "Periyar" E V Ramasamy died on December 24, 1972, both aged 94.
The DMKs/ Dravidian parties
Why the DMK AIADMK rule TN
S Prabakaran, November 27, 2020: The Times of India
The ruling AIADMK or the DMK have been in power since 1967. They see eye-to-eye only in such matters as reservation, Cauvery river water sharing and Sri Lankan Tamils issue. In tune with this trend, the one-upmanship over 7.5% quota politics saw neat conception of the idea and its equally neat implementation. That the entire fee of the students will be borne by the DMK or the government, or both, has further sweetened the deal.
That neither parties liked NEET and that they have been promising to scrap it at the earliest political possibility is known. Basis for their common hatred is that not many rural students or those who studied in government schools were able to crack NEET or score enough marks to get into government-run medical colleges. No legislative attempt, including the DMK’s rural reservation scheme, could escape judicial scrutiny in the past.
To blunt the unrelenting criticism by the opposition party, the Edappadi K Palaniswami government formed a judicial committee headed by retired Madras high court judge Justice Kalaiyarasan. His report acknowledged the steep social divide, and recommended 10% quota for government schools in MBBS/BDS courses. For certain reasons, the government scaled it down to 7.5% and tabled it in the assembly. Though forwarded to governor Banwarilal Purohit immediately the latter chose to sit on it saying he needed legal opinion of the attorney general of India.
Tamil Nadu has 3.44 lakh students in more than 3,050 state-run schools. However, of the more than 4,000 government quota medical seats, only 14 of them went to government schools students in the past three years put together. That is, of the 41% of Class XII students in the state, only 14 could go to government medical colleges. But even this damning data did not move the Raj Bhavan till the attorney general gave his green signal saying there is nothing unconstitutional about the policy decision, so long as it remains within the permissible reservation ceiling.
Sensing a political space in the delay, the DMK organised protests and made it a huge political issue, thereby pinning its stamp on the social welfare initiative of the AIADMK government. To foil the DMK’s bid to steal the thunder, and upset by the unresponsive governor despite three ministerial delegations meeting him, the AIADMK government took the executive route and issued a government order on October 29. The “surgical strike’’ of sorts had the desired effect — the very next day the governor gave assent to the Tamil Nadu Admission to Undergraduate Courses in Medicine, Dentistry, Indian Medicine and Homoeopathy on Preferential Basis to the Students of the Government Schools Bill, 2020.
The last, but most interesting part of the 7.5% quota politics unfolded after the governor’s assent on October 30. Of the 313 government schools students selected for the MBBS course, 225 were accommodated in government medical colleges, and another 15 given admission in government dental colleges. Another 85 students were taken in by private medical colleges. While the annual tuition fee is less than ₹20,000 in government colleges, in private institutions it is ₹3.5 lakh-₹4.5 lakh a year.
As reports on the inability of underprivileged students to pursue their medical dream surfaced, the DMK announced last week that it would bear the expenses of all government school students joining private colleges. Not to be left behind, the government itself made a similar announcement later in the day, but pointed out that it had already announced a similar decision on November 18, and that it had also written to colleges not to deny admission to students admitted under 7.5% quota.
Politics is bound to be played. But what should not be missed is the fact that the competitive welfarism or competitive populism between these two Dravidian parties has ultimately benefited a critical section of society, and triggered a huge interest among the next batches of students in government schools.
Reports show that other states have no such debate about the poor presence of government school students in government medical colleges. Consequently, most states do not keep track of the number of government school students in their medical colleges.
In Tamil Nadu, when the DMK and the AIADMK were slugging it out for credit in getting medical seats for more than 300 students from financially disadvantaged backgrounds, the other politial parties remained mute spectators.
DMK vs. AIADMK: a history of bickering (till May 2021)
One thing Stalin is doing in TN that his dad didn't - Times of India
The limited scope of the DMK’s popularity could be assessed with the 1989 assembly polls in mind, when the AIADMK split after the death of its tallest leader MGR in December 1987. The DMK was elected to power, but secured only about one-third of the votes. In 2006, the DMK won on the strength of a strong alliance which included the Congress, the PMK and the Left, to touch 44% vote share . In 2016, the DMK indirectly projected Stalin as the heir apparent to get close to 40% vote share but lost out to the AIADMK which boosted its own vote share to 41.1%, and J Jayalalithaa barely scraped through. The DMK only came close to the majority mark, but it was apparent that Stalin did attract a percentage of voters who wanted change.
In the past, the DMK and the AIADMK governments had been guilty of winding up or renaming pet schemes of each another soon after coming to power. Stalin has shown no keenness to alter the status quo, especially relating to Amma Unavagam. The arrest of DMK men who vandalised an Amma Unavagam outlet, seeking to remove the photograph of Jayalalithaa and the reassurance that the Amma Unavagam scheme would continue to reach out to the poor, the commitment to the Annadhanam scheme of temples
Stalin has been careful to maintain a balance between the Dravidian plank of the party and the sentiments of Hindus, in a marked departure from the Karunanidhi legacy. Karunanidhi was known to make acerbic comments about Hindu gods and goddesses off and on, and this upset devout Hindus who saw the DMK as an antiHindu party. The BJP has been trying to build such a narrative, but the DMK under Stalin nipped it in the bud. The present DMK government has tried to maintain a balance between the Dravidian plank of the party and the sentiments of Hindus, a departure from the Karunanidhi legacy
The present DMK government has tried to maintain a balance between the Dravidian plank of the party and the sentiments of Hindus, a departure from the Karunanidhi legacy
Bickering down the years
- MGR named Dindigul district as Dindigul Anna after Annadurai, but Karunanidhi later restored the name Dindigul and said it would be more appropriate to call
Chengalpet district, where Annadurai was born, as Chengai-Anna in 1989
- Karunanidhi in 1996 named the new film city and a transport corporation which carried the name Jayalalithaa, after MGR and Rajiv Gandhi
- DMK government declared Tamil New Year would be celebrated on the first day of Tamil month ‘Thai’, January 14 in 2008, but Jayalalithaa restored the
celebration to April 14
- Jayalalithaa government in 2011 scrapped the new assembly secretariat complex and decided to convert it into a hospital; she also scrapped the Samacheer Kalvi
syllabus and the Perarignar Anna Library scheme, but had to restore them on court orders
- Kalaignar medical insurance scheme was scrapped and new medical insurance plan introduced by the AIADMK government
The writer is a senior journalist
Election-time ‘incentives’
2019
Tamil Nadu has a rich tradition of election-time freebies - from television sets to blenders to sarees - but this time, leaders are extending the largesse to the humble party worker to begin with. Party cadres who ensure winning votes for candidates stand to win anything from gold chains and rings to refrigerators, motorbikes and even paid foreign trips.
Such is the buzz that I-T sleuths swooped down on one such candidate, Kathir Anand, who is debuting in Vellore, and unearthed Rs 10 lakh on Saturday. Kathir is the son of DMK treasurer S Duraimurugan.
The trend was kicked off by former Union minister and DMK candidate for Arakkonam, Jagathrakshakan. He promised Rs 1 crore to the in-charge of the assembly segment (there are six in an Lok Sabha constituency) where he polls the highest number of votes. Jagathrakshakan, who runs a string of educational institutions, owns a star hotel and is one of the four billionaire candidates from Tamil Nadu.
Duraimurugan said Jagathrakshakan's "incentives" were like awarding a student for scoring top marks and securing the first rank. "The cash price will serve as motivation and encourage healthy competition among party workers. It will serve the purpose and bring victory to the party candidate," he said. The DMK treasurer himself has promised a "cash prize" of Rs 50 lakh to the party worker of the assembly segment which polls the highest number of votes for his son in Vellore.
There is a rider, though. The money can be used only for development activities such as construction of party office in the assembly segment. "There was a overwhelming response from party workers to the announcement," Duraimurugan said.
There was another kind of response too. On a call from the Vellore district election officer, a team of income tax officials landed up at Kathir's residence in Katpadi on Saturday. They also searched a school and college owned by the family and the farmhouse of a close confidant. Cash amounting to Rs 19 lakh was found in the house. "Since Kathir had declared Rs 9 lakh cash on hand in his affidavit, we seized the excess cash," an official said.
Kathir's political rivals are promising cadres election dividends too. New Justice Party founder and AIADMK candidate for Vellore AC Shanmugam is dangling a bullet (motorbike) and fully-funded foreign and domestic tour packages to enterprising party workers.
Shanmugam, who contested unsuccessfully on a BJP ticket from the same constituency in 2014, has a long list of gifts for top-performing cadres from each assembly segment - Bullet motorbikes worth more than Rs 1 lakh, and all-paid foreign and "north India" tours.
"It is a win-win situation for the cadres who work hard and for the candidate who actually tastes victory," said an AIADMK functionary who hurriedly began his campaign in Sathuvachari in Vellore. His target: to ensure Shanmugam gets at least 5,000 votes and he gets a paid holiday.
Political parties
As in 2021 Jan
Jayaraj Sivan, January 23, 2021: The Times of India
From: Jayaraj Sivan, January 23, 2021: The Times of India
From: Jayaraj Sivan, January 23, 2021: The Times of India
Following the upcoming assembly polls in Tamil Nadu, the DMDK is set to join a list of unregistered parties in the state
A growing number of Tamil Nadu political parties are losing their state party status and in turn their symbols. The upcoming 2021 assembly election is crucial for the Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK). If the party with Vijakant at the helm does not get the requisite votes it will lose the state party status and join an unenviable list of parties like the Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK) and the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) that have lost state party status over the past few decades. If it fails to secure 8% vote share or 6% and two MLAs in the forthcoming assembly elections, Vijayakant’s party would lose the state party status and its poll symbol ‘murasu’ would be withdrawn.
If Vijayakant's party fails to secure 8% vote share or 6% and two MLAs in assembly elections it could lose its poll symbol Tamil Nadu, as of now, has only three state parties — the AIADMK, the DMK and the DMDK. It was with a stellar performance, by securing 7.88% vote share and 29 seats, in the 2011 general elections to the state assembly that the DMDK made its presence felt in Tamil Nadu. The party, which was launched in 2005, had 8.38% votes and won one seat in 2006 assembly polls. It did not win any seat, but got 10.08% votes in the 2009 Lok Sabha polls, but slid to 5.19% votes in 2014 LS polls that came down to 2.19% in the last LS polls. The DMDK has not won a single seat in the polls after 2011. But, by virtue of the EC rules which stipulate that the commission would review the performance of a party for continuing or withdrawing its recognition only after two general elections to the LS or state legislative assembly on the basis of which the party secured its national party or state party status, the DMDK has retained its symbol thus far. Since the party retained its state party status based on the 2011 assembly polls, it is on life-support till the 2021 general elections.
Many parties across the country have gone through similar situations. Liberal amendments to party symbol rules, issued by the Election Commission (EC) on May 14, 2005, gave a reprieve to the MDMK and the PMK, which were facing the threat of derecognition owing to poor show in the polls. These parties, however, lost their state party status and symbols in later years.
The PMK won 18 MLAs and polled 5.65% vote share in 2006. In the subsequent LS polls in 2009, it increased the vote share to 5.71%, but lost all seats. In 2011, the party secured 5.23% vote share and won three MLAs. Though it won an MP in 2014, the vote share slid to 4.45%.
Contesting alone in 232 seats in 2016 assembly polls, it improved the vote share to 5.32%, but lost all seats and lost deposit in 212 of them. Finally, the PMK lost its state party status in 2016. Thanks to the commission’s rule of giving preferential allotment of old symbols to political parties, the PMK managed to secure mango symbol in 2016 general elections.
In 2016, the PMK managed to secure mango symbol in general elections, but lost state party status in 2010 when it secured only 4.65% votes in assembly polls
The MDMK’s saga has never been inspiring. Vaiko’s party secured the state party status by winning four MPs in the 1999 LS polls, but it could secure only 4.65% votes in the 2001 assembly elections and lost deposits in 205 of the 211 seats it contested. The party lost the state party status in 2010 and failed to contest in the 2011 general elections.
The TMC’s story is different as it was merged with the Congress in 2002, after the death of G K Moopanar. Though G K Vasan revived the TMC by breaking away from the Congress in 2014, it never measured up to the original TMC in strength.
All the parties that lost the state party status slid to a category called registered unrecognised parties that vie for one among the 198 election symbols offered by the EC at the time of polls.
Across India, there are 2,301 registered unrecognised parties, which 179 — close to 8% — are in Tamil Nadu. Many of them remain only on paper and tracing their addresses would be quite a task for the EC. Strange are the names of many of them. For instance, there is an All Prisoner’s Party registered in Tamil Nadu. Another party is christened Anna MGR Jayalalithaa Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam. There is one named after father and mother — Appaama Makkal Kazhagam — and another one for lovers — Indian Lovers Party — and someone has named a party as brief as Patriot.
The EC has repeatedly sought powers to deregister political parties for acts of omissions. Many of them remain only on paper, said former Chief Election Commissioner N Gopalaswamy.
“The Supreme Court, in 2001, said the EC has powers only to register parties and doesn’t have powers to deregister them, because the law does not permit it. Since then, every CEC has been writing letters to get the law amended to give powers to deregister political parties as well. But the government is not acting. If you have powers to do, you should have powers to undo too,” said Gopalaswamy.
Still, the EC, in 2017, released a list of political parties that were deregistered between February and December of 2016 as they did not contest in any polls from 2005 to 2015 as per the commission’s records. Inquiries by the respective state chief electoral officers showed that some parties are no longer in existence. Interestingly, of the 255 parties that were delisted by the EC, 37 — about 15% — were from Tamil Nadu.
What is the Election Commission's eligibility criteria
- An outfit is recognised as a state party if it fulfils either of these conditions
- Secures 6% of valid votes polled in the assembly general elections and wins a minimum of two seats
- In general election, it secures 6% of the valid votes polled and wins an MP seat
- The party wins 3% seats in the general elections to the assembly or three seats, whichever is more
- For every 25 Lok Sabha seats, it wins one MP in the LS polls The party gets 8% votes in the assembly or general elections
Spike in number of registered unrecognised parties
There are a total of 2,360 political parties registered with the Election Commission. 2,301 or 97.50% of registered political parties are unrecognised parties. The number of registered unrecognised political parties has increased two fold in the last 10 years. From 1112 parties in 2010, the number has spiked to 2,301 in 2019.
Out of which 653 parties or 28.38% belong to Uttar Pradesh, followed by 291 parties or 12.65% from Delhi and 184 or 8% from Tamil Nadu.
Source: Association for Democratic Reforms
Religion
Returns to TN politics
The Times of India, Mar 24, 2016
Kalyanaraman Mauryas
Tamil Nadu election: How religion is scripting a TN return
Despite more than seven decades of the Dravidian movement, religious belief seems strong as ever in the state.
In the `About' page of her personal website, Thamizhachi Thangapandian introduces herself as someone who upholds Periyar's ideas but has also imbibed Osho's thoughts. Thamizhachi, a writer and the secretary of the DMK's art, literature and rationalism wing, is among those who are seeking to give a contemporary feel to the party's rationalist and atheistic moorings.Overturning decades of Dravidian movement's hostility to a thousand years of bhakti literature, Thamizhachi acknowledges the Tamil version of Ramayana as part of the state's traditions. Thamizhachi is cut from a softer cloth. For most Periyar followers in the past, however, virulently denying God and ridiculing believers were par for the course. Periyar, the founder of the Dravidian movement who in his youth had several run-ins with brahmins and their notions of caste purity, saw religion and scriptures as the source of caste inequality . He railed against all beliefs and called them superstitions."Periyar comes in a long line of contrarian voices in Tamil and Indian society . He was like the siddhars and charvakas who would forcefully attack belief, ritual and brahmins," says M D Muthukumaraswamy , a folklorist and scholar of Saiva scholar of Saiva philosophy . Yet, despite more than seven decades of the Dravidian movement and 49 years of rule of Dravidian parties, religious belief seems strong as ever in the state. Lakhs of people throng not just the big temples but also smaller folk shrines closely linked to local culture. "Periyar the modernist saw everything around him as regressive. A cultural nihilist, he didn't understand the importance of the rela tionship between beliefs and the cultural life of Tamils," says Muthukumaraswamy . Critics are not so charitable to Periyar. "His atheism and show of putting a gar land of chappals over idols of deities were clownish, not well thought out.Scriptures merely codified caste whose material basis was already there in society. The Dravidian move ment attacked scriptures but never really challenged the deeper basis of caste," says N Kalyan Raman, a literary critic, who adds that while the movement empowered OBCs against brahmins it kept alive the antagonism between OBCs and dalits. Kalyan Ra man cites the recent case of a dalit boy being hacked to death in Tirupur last week for marrying a thevar (OBC) girl, in an apparent case of honour killing. But Periyar's followers find in such incidents the dying gasps of a moribund caste system. "Inter-caste marriages among upper castes and backward classes have become common because of the progressive nature of the Dravidian movement. It's only a matter of time before dalits are also integrated into Tamil society ," says G Olivannan, vice president of Tamil Nadu Rationalists' Society that is part of Dravidar Kazhagam. Many say that right from the beginning those among Periyar's followers who sought a political future were keen on reformist policies but stopped short of preaching atheism. Annadurai, an atheist who founded the DMK in 1949, jettisoned atheism in favour of the concept of "One Mankind, One God".
"Such accommodations are inevitable in politics when we want to appeal to a broad section," says Thamizhachi.She finds nothing wrong in Stalin's recent temple visits."We have to acknowledge all voices in society in a spirit of post-modernism even when we critique them," she says. Thamizhachi considers atheism or irreligiousness as a feature of a social movement that fights caste inequality and subjugation of women, and cites legislation by the DMK, such as giving women rights to inherit property and appointing non-brahmins as priests in temples. Others, however, see in the movement's twists and turns a lack of principles. "Karunanidhi's wife and Stalin's wife are devoutly religious. Jaya is openly religious. Her followers offer prayers at temples for their leader, some even go as far as to ritually partake food from the floor of a temple so the deity showers blessings on Jayalalithaa," says T N Gopalan, a political analyst.
Students
1965 onwards: How students shaped Tamil Nadu politics
N Nandhivarman, Feb 6, 2017: The Times of India
Remains to be seen if jallikattu agitation will bring in a new leadership
“From January 26th of 1965, Hindi will become the official language of the Union. Although provision had been made in the Official Language Act 1963 for the continued use of English in addition to Hindi, it is expected that Hindi will be used for all official purposes of the Union after January 26 of 1965.“ The news published in a circular issued by the Lal Bahadur Sastri-led Union government in 1964 had enough fuel to trigger the famous anti-Hindi agitation of 1965, an event which not only united Tamils against one cause but also changed the dynamics of politics in Tamil Nadu by bringing Dravidian parties to the forefront.
The pattern of the recent protests against the jallikattu ban may have looked like a reprise of the anti-Hindi protests, with both uprisings being spearheaded by students. But, the strings that pulled both were different and so were the repercussions.
Unlike the jallikattu protest wherein students declined involvement of any political party in the agitation, it was the DMK which laid the foundation for the anti-Hindi protests in 1965. The DMK executive council under general secretary Navalar Era Nedunchezhian on January 8, 1965 declared that the party would celebrate that year’s Republic Day as ‘Mourning Day’ in protest against the Union government’s decision of having chosen the day for the imposition of Hindi in the south.
Within six hours of this decision, student leaders met at Pachaiyappa’s College to take the movement forward.This was followed by massive protests by students across the state. Students were afraid that they will not be eligible for Central government jobs if Hindi became the sole official language. The Tamil Nadu Students Anti-Hindi Agitation Council coordinated the anti-Hindi protests. Picketing and protests were seen on the campus of Presidency College, Annamalai University (Chidambaram), The American College (Madurai) and Raja Serfoji College (Thanjavur) among others. An indefinite suspension of the Part XVII of the constitution was demanded at the Tamil Nadu Anti-Hindi Conference, held in Trichy on January 17.
As a preventive step, Annadurai was arrested and taken into police custody on January 25. The following day saw more than 50,000 students carrying out a rally from Napier Park to the secretariat to petition the chief minister.
DMK cadres like Keezhapavoor Chinnasamy and Aranganathan immolated themselves. M Karunanidhi was sent to solitary imprisonment in Palayam Kottai. Interestingly , while the fear of loss of job opportunities was the only reason that united students against the imposition of Hindi in TN, the cause that united students on Marina wasn’t jallikattu alone. Jallikattu served as a symbol for students to pour out their pent-up ire against the establishment on a range of issues including the Cauvery water, demonetization and drought in TN.
While the anti-Hindi agitations started on a peaceful note, police firing saw the usually peace-loving Tamils retaliating through violent acts. The uprising led to the fall of the Congress regime in 1967 and pushed DMK to the forefront. The jallikattu protest on the contrary was a highly peaceful agitation which gave students a platform to ex press themselves. That they desired no medium to put forth their demands became evident when they turned down any support from political parties or celebrities. It, however, took an ugly turn, when lumpen elements marred it with violent acts.
Looking back, I think, in the aftermath of the anti-Hindi protests, the government patted itself on the back just by putting neon lights proclaiming ‘long live Tamil’ in government buildings rather than making Tamil a medium of instruction in schools and colleges. Such hollow assurances sans solid steps continue till date.The real development of Tamil culture is on the back-burner.
The anti-Hindi agitation gave birth to many young leaders like K Kalimuthu, P Seenivasan, L Ganesan, A Ravichandran, Durai Murugan, Sedapatti Muthaiah, M Natarajan (Sasikala’s husband) etc. While many of them went on to become ministers and MPs, some faded into oblivion. Fired by a larger cause, a few made their mark in other fields. Will we see any of the jallikattu protesters reaching great heights? The answer to that would depend on the impact the agitation had on Tamil people’s ideas.
The subsidy culture
Free rice has made people of TN lazy: Madras HC
The Madras high court has said distribution of free rice and other such government schemes had made the people of Tamil Nadu lazy and as a result workers had to be brought in from northern states.
Making it clear that the court is not against distribution of rice free of cost to economically backward people, a division bench of Justice N Kirubakaran and Justice Abdul Quddhose asserted that such schemes should not be provided to all irrespective of economic status. The court was hearing a habeas corpus plea moved by an accused in a rice smuggling case challenging his detention under the Goondas Act.
“It is brought to the notice of this court that for 2017-18, 2,110crore has been spent for distribution of free rice. 2,110crore is a huge amount, which should be spent judiciously including for infrastructure building. Government spends more than 2,000 crore and the money spent under this head would be like capital loss and the expenditure occurs every year and it is recurring capital loss, though it serves the people,” the bench said.
If the scheme benefits people other than poor, it would amount to unjustly enriching other people, at the cost of the public exchequer. Free rice should be given to families below the poverty line alone, the bench added and directed the government to file a report whether any survey had been conducted to identify BPL families. If so, how many families were below the poverty line in Tamil Nadu? If rice was distributed only to those people, what would be the volume required and the budget needed?
To this, advocate general Vijay Narayan sought time to get instructions on whether the scheme could be amended so that those above the poverty line could be excluded.
Recording the submission, the bench said the state had to provide bare necessities such as rice and other groceries to the needy. However, successive governments had extended the benefits to all for political benefits.
“Consequently, people have become lazy and we have to import workers from northern states even for menial works,” the bench said and posted the plea to November 30 for further hearing.
Villages that are apolitical
As in 2021
Devanathan veerappan, March 14, 2021: The Times of India
Electioneering is all about loud slogans, colourful festoons and rallies by politicians. But there are a few villages in the south where such activities are not allowed in an effort to ensure communal harmony and peace even after the election.
One such village is Othaveedu, located next to Karuppayurani, on the outskirts of Madurai in TN. The village has around 250 houses and 650 voters. People from villages near Thirumangalam, T Kallupatti and Perungudi in the district migrated here around 100 years ago. It has been a tradition here not to allow people to stick posters and erect banners as it would create a rift among themselves. Erecting flag masts, installation of loudspeakers, entry of politicians or candidates for canvassing and distribution of money to influence voters is also not allowed.
“We welcome candidates at the village entry point with shawls, listen to their poll promises and send them back. We have been following this for three generations now. All parties know it and respect the village rules,” said R Muthu, a resident.
“We’ll put forth requirements of basic amenities to the candidates when they approach us. This time we are planning to raise the issues such as distribution of salty water and bad roads,” said G Ilangovan, a retired TN State Transport Corporation employee.
Until a few years back, people would not approach police stations for petty quarrels as the issues would be solved by village elders at the mandhai (public space) in the presence of parties involved and general villagers. However, it has changed now, villagers say.
There are a few such villages in Theni and Virudhunagar districts too.
In Maruthangulam village in Virudhunagar, candidates are allowed to conduct campaigns without loudspeakers, flex banners or festoons. “They have to park their vehicles at the village mandhai and walk the streets,” village president N Kasirajan said.
Badrakalipuram village in Theni district allows campaigns, but villagers say a strict no to flag masts, wall graffiti or campaign stages.
YEAR-WISE DEVELOPMENTS
2017
Sasikala unanimously elected legislature party leader before getting imprisoned
AIADMK general secretary V K Sasikala was unanimously elected legislature party leader by MLAs at a party meeting, paving the way for her to become the third woman chief minister of Tamil Nadu. The swearing-in ceremony is likely to take place.
Chief minister O Panneerselvam proposed her name and was seconded by AIADMK MLAs at the party headquarters. “I resign. We elect Chinnamma (Sasikala) unanimously the legislature party leader,“ Panneerselvam said, setting off applause in the hall.The allies who won on the two leaves symbol, MJK, Kongu Ilaignar Peravai and Mukkaluthur Pulipadai, also endorsed her candidature, though the MLAs were not present.
In all, 134 MLAs signed the resolution, backing Sasikala to take over the reins of government. Hours later, Panneerselvam tendered his resignation to governor C Vidyasagar Rao. “Accept my resignation and relieve the council of ministers appointed by me on December 6,“ he said in the letter. He thanked PM Modi and the governor for extending support and cooperation during his tenure as CM.
Earlier, Panneerselvam and other ministers met Sasikala at the Poes Garden residence of the late chief minister J Jayalalithaa, where Sasikala continues to live. The ostensible purpose of the meeting was to discuss the government's activities, issues pertaining to various constituencies and the manner in which Jayalalithaa's birth anniversary on February 24 is to be celebrated.
Minutes later, the MLAs met at the party headquarters and elected her. Sasikala, who dropped in, was greeted with the chorus of “Chinnamma Vazhga“ (Long live Chinnamma). The close confidante of Jayalalithaa made her way to the first floor and greeted the MLAs. Flanked by Panneerselvam, Edappadi K Palaniswami and party presidium chairman E Madhusoodanan, Sasikala took centre stage and said: “I accept your decision that one person alone should be the general secretary of the party and chief minister of Tamil Nadu.“ She went on to add, “I would realise the dreams of Amma. This government will work for the people in the way shown by Amma.“ In her four-minute speech, Sasikala expressed her gratitude to the MLAs and party workers for “shattering the dreams of rivals who wanted to see the party split“.
She praised Panneerselvam who, she said, stood loyal whenever the party faced tough times and when there were difficulties in Jayalalithaa continuing as CM. She said it was he who first persuaded her to take over the reins of the party and government. She will be the third woman CM of the state after Jayalalithaa and MGR's wife Janaki who assumed office for 24 days in 1988. I was not keen on accepting it then,“ Sasikala said, detailing that she took over as general secretary following requests from party workers.Sasikala said she had an obligation to fulfil the request of party workers and realise the dream of Jayalalithaa that the party should continue to work for welfare of people for a thousand years. The meeting was called a day after Sasikala appointed nine former ministers and 14 senior members who were earlier sidelined by Jayalalithaa. In what could be seen a precursor to the developments, Sasikala also booted out Jayalalithaa's loyalists from CM office-adviser Balakrishnan, Venkatramanan and A Ramalingam.
2018
HC split on 18 MLAs disqualification case
Sureshkumar K, Relief for TN govt, HC split on 18 MLAs, June 15, 2018: The Times of India
Political uncertainty in Tamil Nadu is bound to continue for some more time as the first bench of the Madras high court on Thursday delivered a split verdict in the ‘18 MLAs disqualification case’.
While Chief Justice Indira Banerjee upheld the Tamil Nadu assembly speaker’s September 18, 2017 order stripping 18 rebel AIADMK legislators of their posts, saying scope of judicial review was limited, her companion judge on the bench Justice M Sundar quashed the speaker’s decision, saying the MLAs’ act of alleged defection was not ‘clear, categoric and unambiguous.”
They were disqualified on September 18, 2017 under anti-defection rules for having submitted a memorandum to the governor withdrawing their support to CM Edappadi K Palaniswami. On September 20, the court asked the election commission not to treat them as vacancies and hold bypolls. The first bench reserved its order on January
23. On Thursday, in a development that would prolong the suspense and uncertainty over the status of these MLAs, and consequently the stability of the government itself, the judges failed to reach a consensus over the issue. They then referred the matter to the next seniormost judge of the court so as to be posted before a third judge for hearing. The bench also made it clear that the bar on holding byelections to the 18 vacancies would continue.
In her order, Chief Justice Banerjee said that though orders of the speaker under the Tenth Schedule were amenable to judicial review, the scope of such judicial review is limited to violation of constitutional mandate, mala fides, non-compliance with rules of natural justice and perversity.
Two deaths alter TN’s political landscape in two years
From: August 9, 2018: The Times of India
See graphic :
2016-18- Two deaths alter TN’s political landscape in two years
18 rebel AIADMK MLAs disqualified by HC
The Edappadi K Palaniswami government in Tamil Nadu survived yet another crisis when the Madras high court upheld the disqualification of 18 rebel AIADMK legislators owing allegiance to rebel leader T T V Dhinakaran.
In a 475-page verdict on Thursday, Justice M Sathyanarayanan, who was selected by the Supreme Court as the tie-breaking judge after the split verdict on June 14, answered all four key legal points against the disqualified MLAs and confirmed the September 18, 2017, order of Tamil Nadu assembly speaker P Dhanapal stripping them of their elected posts.
The 18 legislators had attracted disqualification after they submitted a memorandum to the governor on August 22, 2017, expressing no confidence in the leadership of CM Palaniswami, withdrawing their support to him and heaping corruption allegations against him.
The ruling AIADMK can now survive a trust vote, as Palaniswami is assured of the support of 109 AIADMK legislators, two more than the half-way mark in the assembly as per the new strength of 214. While the CM welcomed the verdict , the DMK called for byelection in all the 18 constituencies, plus two more vacancies caused by the death of former CM M Karunanidhi and AIADMK legislator A K Bose . Meanwhile, the Madras high court on Thursday lifted the stay on conducting bypolls in Tamil Nadu.
The Palaniswami govt survived yet another crisis as the Madras HC upheld the disqualification of 18 rebel legislators
2019
Slow shift from Dravidian identity
DMK, ADMK Change Tone On Language
In 1962, the DMK (Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam) manifesto opposed compulsory learning of Hindi and demanded a constitutional amendment to make English an official language. This time, the party, and its rival AIADMK, have sought to make Tamil one of the official languages in all central government offices.
The compulsions of being in power for more than five decades have changed the way the Dravidian majors approach their poll manifestos. The demands of a separate Dravidian land and shunning Hindi have given way to the language of development in their recent manifestos.
The anti-Hindi rhetoric has died down in keeping with the sizeable Hindispeaking population in Chennai and other parts of the state in recent years. The DMK has, in the past, even brought out election publicity material in Hindi.
Dilution of their political planks had been in the making for long, says veteran journalist TN Gopalan. “DMK gave up its demand for a separate Dravidian land even before it entered electoral politics in 1957. During the Sino-Indian war of 1962, party chief CN Annadurai made it official that the party was dropping the secessionist demand. By then, DMK was the principal opposition party in the Tamil Nadu assembly. But then, it spearheaded the anti-Hindi agitation in 1965, which catapulted the party to power in 1967. I don’t believe they were not strong in their convictions. As they tasted power, they perhaps realised that they can work the system to their advantage,” said Gopalan. “If they can benefit from the system, why fight against it,” is the attitude of politicians, he said.
Over the decades, Tamil Nadu politicians have also lost their relevance on the international scene. “The Tamil issue in Sri Lanka has gone back to where it was in the early 1980s. Today, Lanka is not ready to concede even the demands it had agreed to in 1987. Tamil Nadu politicians are in no position to influence Lanka either,” said political analyst V Suryanarayan.
While the Dravidian majors have fallen silent on Tamil identity, Naam Thamizhar Katchi, founded by film director Seeman in 2010, is seeking to occupy that space. There aren’t many takers for Seeman’s Tamil nationalist agenda though. “Even DMK and AIADMK had rabblerousers in the past but they were relevant in a different era. Rabble- rousers have no future in present-day politics. Seeman’s support base has not grown for years,” says retired bureaucrat and political commentator MG Devasahayam.
Gounder tag failed CM as Stalin won other communities
Jayaraj Sivan, June 4, 2019: The Times of India
As DMK chief Stalin nibbles through AIADMK’s traditional vote base, gounder tag fails CM Edappadi K Palaniswami
CHENNAI: The gounder caste tag, cultivated earnestly by Tamil Nadu chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami for his party and the government to keep him in good stead through his present term, bombed at the hustings because he failed to keep track of DMK president M K Stalin’s game plan to nibble through other community votes, especially the arunthathiars, a sub-sect of the Scheduled Castes.
Sensing the social undercurrents, which put stumbling blocks in front of a gounder-arunthathiar truck, the DMK did backroom work to bring the two communities together much before the polls. At the behest of the DMK, a conference was organised by Adi Tamilar Peravai, an arunthathiar outfit, at Sankagiri in Namakkal Lok Sabha constituency on February 9. At the instance of the DMK, the so-called organisers invited a gounder outfit, Kongunadu Makkal Desia Katchi (KMDK), headed by E R Eswaran to the event.
The Saankagiri conference helped the DMK unravel the arunthathiar puzzle. “The community, which had been traditionally voting for the AIADMK right from the MGR days, started thinking about a change of mind. Moreover, after my participation in the arunthathiar conference, the AIADMK’s attempts to scare them with the hardcore gounder tag of the KMDK did not work in the polls,” said Eswaran.
The results show while the AIADMK, contesting alone, secured the maximum margin of 2.94 lakh votes in Namakkal in western Tamil Nadu in the 2014 polls, the party lost by the maximum margin (2.65 lakh votes) in the region in the very same Namakkal Lok Sabha seat in 2019 despite having big partners like the S Ramadoss-headed PMK and ‘Captain’ Vijayakant’s DMDK with it.
The poll outcome also shows that despite all the hype of Edappadi K Palaniswami promoting his gounder caste and region – so much so that he gained the moniker of Salem chief minister - gounders themselves did not consolidate under the AIADMK leadership.
DMK’s ally Eswaran split gounder votes across all over western Tamil Nadu and parts of central TN, accounting for 11 Lok Sabha constituencies - Coimbatore, Erode, Tirupur, the Nilgiris, Salem, Dharmapuri, Krishnagiri, Namakkal, Pollachi, Karur and Dindigul.
Signs of Easwaran’s influence were evident when his party organised World Kongu Tamilar Conference at Namakkal on February 3. Gounder leaders from 27 countries participated in the event and the state intelligence agency had estimated the crowd was massive.
The drubbing is the region was complete. Anbumani Ramadoss, one of the two NDA MPs to win in 2014, lost his Dharmapuri seat despite a gounder-vanniyar truck.
Apart from alienating arunthathiars, the gounder domination in the AIADMK alienated many forward and backward classes like the mudaliars and chettiars from the ruling party, said political analyst Raveenthiran Thuraisamy.
“This polarisation is a surprise because gounders are not known to be aggressive. But their political domination was perceived as an aggressive posture by non-gounder communities,” said Thuraisamy.
Mudaliars and chettiars account for 50,000-70,000 votes each in many Lok Sabha constituencies in the western region.
