The Circle of Life
Both Jayalalitha and Karunanidhi are proof of the circle of life. Pre-elections nothing went right for amma and in fact the obituary of the AIADMK was almost written after her party candidate lost his deposit in the Pennagaram by-election early last year. Now she is riding high, having just returned from a thanksgiving trip to her constitutency, Srirangam, where she announced a slew of development projects worth Rs 190 crores. She has virtually overturned every one of the DMK’s policies. Not that anyone is surprised. That is how politics is played out here.
After scrapping the free colour TV scheme, she announced, “Over one lakh colour TV sets already procured in the sixth phase will be distributed to orphanages, anganwadis, old age homes, panchayats, government schools, government hospitals and other public welfare places.” She got applause rather than criticism for this move. It’s like she can’t do anything wrong even though Karunanidhi (and some others) has criticized her for not acting “maturely.”
While most of her actions have been predictable (she’s not yet done with reshuffling the bureaucracy), what is different this time is that “austerity” is the bottomline. When she launched the free rice scheme on June 1, the function was sans any hoopla and cut-outs of her. When she went on her three-day trip to Tiruchi district on a thanksgiving exercise this week, the visit was shorn of extravagance associated with Dravidian, particularly AIADMK, functions under her.
The circle of life which saw her down in the dumps a year ago has catapulted her to dizzy heights where she is wooed by the likes of Lord Swraj Paul and this week, by Ms Karen Tan who is Singapore’s High Commissioner to India, not to mention manufacturers of laptops. She is expected to finalise the tenders on July 11 for the laptops, an electoral promise. In the first year, her government is expected to distribute 9.12 lakh laptops to students of government and government-aided higher secondary schools and engineering, polytechnic, arts and science colleges in the state. When she met PM Manmohan Singh recently, among her 20-point charter of demands was for a special grant of Rs 10,200 crores to fulfil the laptop promise.
What goes around...
On the other hand, post-election nothing seems to be going right for Karunanidhi. His party with 23 MLAs is not even the prime opposition party. The party was overwhelmed by a barrage of criticism on its schemes from the treasury benches during the recent short assembly session. Its only democratic protest was to boycott the proceedings for the last two days even when the resolution on Sri Lankan was carried.
Karunanidhi’s daughter Kanimozhi is looking at a long period of incarceration in Tihar jail after the Supreme Court also denied her bail (earlier the trial court and the Delhi high court rejected her bail application) and there’s nothing he can do about it. There were poignant scenes at Tihar on June 21 when he went to meet her for the second time since she was arrested on May 20 after being named as a co-accused in the 2G scam. The only assurance the upset 87-year-old father could give his favourite daughter was that he will consult lawyers about getting her the bail that has eluded her. Since his return from Delhi he is talking about the “inhuman” treatment meted to her at Tihar. “Kani is locked up in Tihar in an inhuman manner. Her body is full of boils. Sharad Kumar (MD of Kalaignar TV who has also been jailed) is also weak and his health is fragile,” says the distressed father accusing the media of a witchhunt that resulted in his daughter getting locked up.
Incidentally, an RTI says that Tihar relaxed rules and allowed Karunanidhi to visit his daughter after visiting hours during both his visits.
To add to his plate of woes, there’s an inquiry into one of Karunanidhi’s pet projects, the assembly complex. He has severely criticized Jayalalitha’s decision – “she is wasting people’s money” – to move her administration to Fort St George from the Rs 1100 crore assembly-secretariat complex that he built. However, he claims that the construction of A block which includes the assembly, council, ministers’ cabins and conference hall cost Rs 479 crores while his government had spent only Rs 80 crore of an estimated Rs 280 crore on B block. But the point is the building he supervised during construction and moved into is now a white elephant.
Some gratitude
And one year after he presided over the extravagant World Tamil Classical Conference – which became a platform for members of his family to project themselves – at the Codissia centre in Coimbatore, his party has been refused permission to hold the DMK’s general council meeting at the same venue next month.
The largest trade fair venue in the state, the complex owned by the Coimbatore District Small Industries Association (Codissia), benefited hugely last May when the DMK government headed by Karunanidhi held the World Classical Tamil Conference. Karunanidhi lavished crores so that the site could be made spiffy for the conference. But like superstar Rajnikanth who called up Jayalalitha (a day before calling Karunanidhi) soon after his discharge from a Singapore hospital, Codissia too knows accommodating Karunanidhi would win the trade body no brownie points with Jayalalitha. But being tactful goes a long way in a state where the DMK and AIADMK have won elections alternately since 1989. So Codissia’s president M Kandaswami was not blunt about refusing the DMK’s request. He merely said, “We don’t rent out our venue to political or caste outfits. DMK is aware that we don’t entertain political events at this venue.” He has justified the Codissia’s veto by saying, “We even denied permission to AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi to hold a meeting with Congress functionaries.”
But one can recall that first of all, the World Classical Tamil Conference was a thinly disguised event to proclaim Karunanidhi was a leader of Tamils. And DMK partymen attended in large numbers and at the time, the criticism was several Tamil writers were not even invited. So it was a political event, Mr Kandhaswami. And secondly, will Codissia have the courage to turn down Amma if she wants to conduct a party event at the venue?
Thirukural and doing the right thing
At least patron saint of TN, Thiruvalluvar, brings both the DMK and AIADMK together. Thiruvalluvar who is believed to have been born 30 years before Jesus Christ wrote 1,330 verses. The practice here is not only to follow his sayings but also there’s a trend to recite it whether it is by schoolchildren at competitions or college students at debates, or even by adults who painstakingly fill a teeny tiny book so that they get into record books for being able to fit 1330 couplets. Then you have a cobbler working on Anna Salai who used to display a board with a couplet and changed it every day. Not surprisingly, he earned a loyal clientele impressed by his knowledge.
Similarly from 2003, a white board was put up in the police commissioner’s office where everyday a verse from Thirukural was written out not only to create awareness among the public and cops but also to inspire them to practice what the savant said – that everyone should do the right thing. But the practice of writing the verses, which was introduced by senior officers, was abandoned when the novelty wore out.
Now the verses are back since the new police commissioner, J K Tripathy took charge recently. “I’m glad they are back. It helps me understand life,” says an employee at the commissionerate. The interesting thing is that while the verses are high-falutin, it’s the explanation in simple Tamil that is really appreciated.
Karunanidhi’s legacy
Thirukural they appreciate but Karunanidhi-isms did not go down too well with the public in government buses in Sivaganga district. In some cases, buses emanating from Kumbakonam district were found to have erased Thiruvalluvar’s verses and replaced it with Karunanidhi’s sayings when he was CM. For instance, this was one of the former CM’s gems: “The Tamil words for you (nee) and I (naan) never sees lips coming together while pronouncing them. But they do when you say naam (we).” It basically implies that togetherness has way more benefits than being alone and egotistic. Were the people put off to see Karunanidhi’s thought substituting Thiruvalluvar’s philosophy?
In any case, people were afraid to say so. But the change of government has been a boon. The State Transport Corporation authorities have ordered that a coat of paint obliterate Karunanidhi’s sayings. And in cases where stickers have been used, they have asked that they be peeled off from the inside of the buses.
