Chennai Corner

2009
Tamil Nadu CM Karunanidhi and his son Stalin, who became the deputy CM and is within striking distance of becoming CM, will definitely raise a toast to 2009 whereas former CM Jayalalitha will rue the year that will soon draw to a close as that in which she wrested defeat from the jaws of victory and is now unable to see the light at the end of the tunnel. As for the other son, M K Azhagiri, when 2009 began it was filled with promise for him but as the year draws to an end, he is beginning to believe that being a union minister is not all that it is cracked up to be. Better to be King of Madurai than be rendered completely irrelevant in Delhi.

Here's a look at the fortunes of some of the principal dramatis personae:

Karunanidhi: Up. 
Will he retire?

He started the year on a high – personally because the Marans were back in the family clan in December 2008 after the famous reunion and all appeared well in his household. Son Azhagiri gifted him three seats after the first by-election of the year– there were seven others during the course of the year and either his party, DMK, or his ally, Congress, won them – and he turned around and gifted more freebies to the people – for instance he provided gift hampers with ingredients for preparing sweet Pongal on Pongal Day through the PDS scheme.

When the elections came back on May 13, he was definitely looking frayed what with all parties including the left, PMK’s Ramadoss, Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi’s Thol Thirumavalavan , Vaiko’s MDMK and even Jayalalitha of the AIADMK (who did a volte face) all shouting hoarse that Karunanidhi was not doing enough to prod the centre to pressure Sri Lanka to call a ceasefire in its war with LTTE in which the Sri Lankan Tamils were caught in the crossfire. 

Karunanidhi, just recovering from the fracas at the high court complex on February 19, when police lathi-charged militant advocates and even judges apart from the suicides in the state on the Tamil issue, found himself on the defensive after saying the late LTTE leader Vellupillai Prabhakaran had started a fratricidal war among Tamil leaders. 

With even Jayalalitha getting credit for supporting the Tamil cause, as the issue was hyped by all political parties hoping for electoral gains at the Lok Sabha hustings, Karunanidhi brought more derision on himself by taking off for Marina one early morning and declared he was going on a fast-unto-death if ceasefire was not enforced in the island. 

There he was lying on a comfortable bed – after his spine surgery in late January he has mostly been prone or in a wheelchair – with one wife near his head and another wife near his feet and air-coolers blowing cool sea breeze, trying desperately to get back his reputation as a protector of Tamils the world over. Instead what he got was jibes and cracks that he was enacting a drama although it must be said that his breakfast to lunch “fast” got the centre to get Sri Lanka to halt the war. 

Is it a coincidence therefore that Prabhakaran was killed after the Tamil Nadu elections? Many prominent Congress candidates like Mani Shankar Aiyar lost while others like our high profile home minister P Chidambaram scraped through by the skin of their teeth as pro-Tamil groups went from constituency to constituency spreading the propaganda that the Congress was responsible for the plight of the Tamils.

But despite all signs that the DMK-Congress combine would be humbled by the AIADMK-alliance, the DMK emerged on top, joined UPA-2, but was considerably weakened as was brought home to Karunanidhi when he wanted virtually his entire family and loyalists in the cabinet but was firmly told he had to pick.

After making Azhagiri a cabinet minister, he rewarded Stalin, the DMK’s star campaigner, with the specially created post of Deputy CM. Stalin has become the go-to guy whether it is party workers, businessman, officials or sycophants. Towards year-end Karunanidhi again started whispers when he said that he would be ready to cast aside power and work for the people from June. But the jury is still out whether he was serious because he will turn 86 on June 3 or whether he was sending a message to his warring family to stop fighting and leave an old man in peace. Stalin said he needs a “rest from rest” and for the moment that’s the position on Karunanidhi’s retirement.

Jayalalitha - Down
Pride before a fall

Jayalalitha was the satellite around which weathercock PMK’s Ramadoss took his flock, the left even paid court to amma and even on the morning of counting on May 16, she was riding high counting her chickens before they were hatched. And when they hatched, it was the DMK-Congress which emerged on top, although her party with eight seats had not conceded a total rout.

Dejected she retreated for four months to her house in the hills at Kodanadu during which her alliance with the left and PMK went kaput. PMK’s Ramadoss was tart saying it was easy to meet the PM, easier to meet Karunanidhi but impossible to meet amma. 

When five by-polls came in August, she decided to boycott , a tactical blunder, which she apparently acknowledged by participating in the two by- polls on December 19. But by then there were defections spontaneous and engineered by the DMK and there was the unprecedented situation when her cadre protested in front of her Poes Garden house because of in-party fighting. 

At the year- end, she looked like after having gambled and lost at the Lok Sabha election , she had no more aces to take on the DMK except through a war of words with Karunanidhi that she kept going through the year. But so far, Tamil Nadu’s recent track record has been that the electorate votes in the DMK and AIADMK alternatively and therefore, historically, she still has a chance to bounce back.

Stalin: Up, Azhagiri: Down

At the year end, the brothers could not have presented a more diverse picture with Stalin distinctly looking like a winner and Azhagiri looking like a loser. Even if Hogennekal Water Supply Project (which is supposed to bring drinking water to fluoride-affected Krisnagiri and Dharmapuri districts) had escalated by nearly 600 crores (the project, by the way, was thought of in 1968) no one noticed because after a trip to Singapore, he came and announced that he would head the multicrore Couum restoration project, again a long-standing promise by politicians. Slowly taking on the duties of his father, one by one, Stalin was flying high and looked like he would fill his father’s shoes in the New Year if not after the 2011 assembly elections if the DMK – with its enticing freebies including rice, colour TV, gas, even free land – comes back to power.

Azhagiri, on the other hand, must have been remembering his initial days in Madurai nearly 30 years ago after his father banished him for sullying the family’s fair name. After increasing the DMK’s tally in ten by-polls, Azhagiri who was appointed the South Zone organizing secretary of the DMK, found that the euphoria of being made a union minister was short-lived when you consider his cultural alienation in Delhi and his lack of grasp of his subject – Chenicals and Fertilisser – that made him a slave of bureaucrats when what he was more used to in TN was lording it over babus.

He had the ignominy of finding Jayalalitha taking his side when she complained that Karunanidhi had not fought for making Tamil an official language in Parliament. This after his constant absence was noticed when his subject was taken up during Question hour

Kanimozhi: Status Quo

When the DMK won enough seats to join UPA-2, it was felt that Kanimozhi will be a sure shot entrant to the union cabinet. It has been a long-standing ambition of her mother Rajathiammal, who, apparently pressured her husband CM Karunanidhi for many months. But with his family squabbling, someone had to step back and it was political novice Kanimozhi. Although many think that even if her learning curve is longer, Stalin and Azhagiri better watch out.

Vijaykanth: Lone Ranger

His party DMDK created waves in the 2006 assembly election, but lost its magic by the Lok Sabha election. However, Vijayakanth steadfastly stayed single and stuck to people issues like power and prices to expose the DMK government. His aim is still to be CM in 2011 and with his party eating into the AIADMK votes, he might just get his wish.

Ramadoss: Down

After being the party which was wooed alternately by the DMK and AIADMK earning him the reputation of being the best judge of electoral “hawa”, his party sank into irrelevance after the Lok Sabha election. Son Anbumani who created controversy after controversy as the union health minister retired hurt while father Ramadoss was last heard demanding a bifurcation of TN as an echo of the demand for Telangana in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh.

Vaiko & Tamil Groups: Down ( now that Prabhakaran is dead)

Even VCK’s Thol Thirumavalavan broke ranks to indulge his constituency after joining 10 DMK and Congress MPs for a visit to the camps holding IDPs (Internally Displaced Persons) in Sri Lanka. Whether pro-Tamil groups saw through his opportunism remains to be seen.

The State: Up or Down?

The city chugged along with every year’s menu of power and water cuts, flooding, traffic jams and more flyovers that only seem to add to chaos on the roads. Some of the roads got murals to reflect the cultural heritage of TN that were washed away in the rain. The new assembly complex got one more high profile sacrifice – the Kalaivanar Arangam was demolished while yet another tradition bit the dust – playing cricket on the Marina. Nearly 2000 youngsters used to head there every Sunday to take part in a sport which is like a religion in this country. University Vice-Chancellors continued to be political appointees with one of them even carrying sycophancy to new heights by announcing that there would be a Ph.D for a student who researched Kalaignar’s thoughts! But on the plus side – which environmentalists said was debatable – was the Marina beach beatification which brought fountains, gardens and viewing galleries to the beach which was better known for its “sundal” (boiled chickpeas) earlier.