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Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Jayalalitha has trounced the DMK and stidden back to power in Tamil Nadu. The Governer, a former Chief Justice now bowing to the winds - and to the electorate - must have had the mortification of administering the oath to a convicted felon.
Should one pity or curse the people of the state? In their defense, they've been turning out governments every chance. Their problem was brilliantly stated by Henry Kissinger in another context (the Iran-Iraq war), when he remarked wistfully, "it's a pity they can't both lose".
The past 37 years have been for Tamilnadu an era of decline in public standards, chicanery in the political sphere, and increasing fascism.
But that could be describing any state in India, you say. Granted. But the DMK and AIADMK are breathtaking in their hypocrisy - their betrayal of their own cause is stunning.
Jayalalitha, heir to the heritage of MGR, and ultimately to the DK (Dravida Kazhagam, founded by EVR) took the oath in the name of God. The DK's founder, EV Ramasami Naicker, was a powerful atheist.
EVR's other plank - the elimination of caste, a cause he shared with the likes of Rammanohar Lohia and BR Ambedkar, is dead as a doorknob. With the exception of Bihar, there is probably not a more casteist polity in the nation than Tamilnadu.
In Annadurai's time, the DMK at least had some notion of fighting for states rights and devolution. But developing these themes would require some serious thought, not a speciality of either party. Their mien is abuse, not discourse. They have quietly let slip any inchoate values that might have made a genuine contribution to the Indian polity - anti-Hindi, anti-centralization and anti-religion.
The anti-Hindi agitation of 1965 taught the Northern Ayatollahs that rigid imposition was the wrong the way (and as an aside, many say that Lal Bahadur Shastri's chauvinistic imposition of Hindi was a great factor in the DMK's victory of 1967). Their new tack was simple - impose something, and when protests were really loud, give half of it back. Two steps forward, one step back. This way, everyone wins - in this the DMK and AIADMK have connived over the years. Hindi's inroads into Tamilnadu have been deep and definite these last three decades, with nary a whimper any more from the DK twins.
Being anti-center would require some degree of self-respect (a name of one of the progenitors of the DMK/AIADMK clan, to which they do not even pretend to cling any more) - and in turn probity. In 1967, no one was more surprised than Anna and his followers at finding themselves in Fort St. George. In the exhilaration they forgot their rationale for political existence. Soon this settled into permanent amnesia upon Annadurai's death to cancer soon after assuming office. The subsequent squabbles between the breakaway AIADMK and Karunanidhi's government left little energy for combating Delhi. Soon the loaves and fishes of office sapped the will as well. Both parties have become synonymous with corruption in governance.
As to anti-religion, the DK twins have been cowardly. Instead of promoting atheism as a cause in the manner of Gora and Lavanam, their activities have been restricted to simple vandalism such as harrassing brahmin priests, obscene graffiti, trying to take over temple managements all across the state (read pelf), and an occasional statement or two from Karunanidhi (from the safety of his home state, of course) denouncing Hinduism being a Northern religion. Of late even this is muted, because Hinduism is now fashionable. Of course, both parties make alliances freely with the Muslim League, which somehow qualifies as a secular party despite its evident nomenclatural handicap.
All in all, a dismal scene. The people of Tamilnadu deserve better. Like the joke about the poor sap kept perpetually enthralled by a piece of paper with "PTO" written on both sides, the Tamilnadu electorate has followed its usual instinct of being so disgusted with the current dispensation only to run to the alternative. It's deja-vu all over again.
Time to throw away the paper.
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