In the epic Indian tradition, Rao could have been the gory Narahasura who is consigned to flames on Diwali. Rao's sin, as his partymen perceived it, was in forging an alliance with the ruling AIADMK. Congressmen and women, who only last August had prepared enthusiastically for the party's Madurai rally, now rained blows on the Prime Minister's cutouts, in a show of revenge that took everyone by surprise.
The anti-Rao feeling took a more profane turn with partymen urinating on the smashed cutouts in full view of television cameras. Press persons, among whom were several women, were shocked at this display, but the ritual went on for over two hours, with senior leaders watching on, quite bemused. One effigy was decorated with a makeshift angavastram . A Narasimha Rao poster with a half-burnt cigarette stuck into it was burnt. When the last cutout was brought out, a handicapped party worker used his crutch to pierce Rao's cardboard figure while others, after piercing it with iron rods, ran away with its head and limbs as souvenirs.
Meanwhile, women wailed and cried out mock oppari (dirges) and the funeral procession was led by party cadres performing a rhythmic tandava. After the ritual bon-fire, they rejoiced: " Drohi ozhindan " (the betrayer has been annihilated). The remains were collected in true Congress-style, and a worker even confessed that he might take it for immersion at the sangam of the three seas at Kanyakumari.
For the people in the vicinity of Sathyamurthi Bhawan, the show of protest was in sharp contrast to the relaxed atmosphere that always prevailed at the TNCC headquarters. In fact, even at such important events as the appointment of a new PCC chief the crowd outside would be no more than a few hundreds.
Perhaps the show of anger was a reflection of the deep-rooted frustration of Congressmen in Tamil Nadu who for the last three years have campaigned against the Jayalalitha government. They also suffered humiliation both inside the state assembly and outside it at the hands of AIADMK men.
The denouement came before the MGR samadhi on Marina beach. In a masochistic display, more than 100 MGR-ADMK activists, whose leader and former minister S. Thirunavukkarasu ditched them at the last minute to rejoin Jayalalitha's ruling party, beat their heads with their chap-pals, to atone for having kept him company for six years.
Folk divinity, death, dance, desecration, sacrifice and atonement have all become part of Tamil Nadu's public sphere. With elections around the corner and the political temperature intensifying, such loud displays of sentiment is only likely to be more visible in the days to come.