Chennai Corner

Diversionary tactic
While Rajya Sabha MP Kanimozhi took to the streets on Wednesday (February 16) protesting against Sri Lanka arresting 106 fishermen, hoping her fight for Tamils will turn the spotlight away from her and her party’s involvement in the 2G scam, Tamil Nadu CM, Karunanidhi, was doing a bit of diversion of his own. With the Congress upping its demand for seats and demanding a share of the power (even as rumours swirl over whether there will be an alliance with the DMK or not) Karunanidhi delivered a “kick”, as a BJP leader put it, by calling on former BJP state president, L. Ganeshan, to wish him happy 66th birthday. A crafty move by the CM, notwithstanding the DMK’s general council passing a resolution against BJP president Nitin Gadkari for “maligning” the DMK. Significantly, his sudden love for the local BJP came even as the PM whined about “coalition compromises” when asked about the 2G scam.

Interestingly, Karunanidhi was anything but friendly to the BJP a few days ago when he personally presided over former BJP president Dr S P Kirubanidhi joining the DMK. Kirubanidhi, a president from 1999 to 2001, left when he was kept out of the core committee, complaining that he was not “being shown due respect.” The central leadership got into a flap that a well respected Dalit leader had left the party and reportedly got on BJP state president Pon Radhakrishnan’s case. So you had the amusing incident earlier this week when Kirubanidhi, a surgeon who runs his own hospital in Cuddalore, addressed the media with Radhakrishan by his side: “Yes I have joined the DMK and came to the BJP office only to clarify certain issues. That is the party that I like.” He was hurriedly ushered out by a red-faced Radhakrishan. 

With BJP having virtually no presence in TN, his defection to the ruling party makes sense for him although it’s unlikely that the DMK, fending off scam allegations and the Congress’ tough stance on seat sharing, will seek him out and give him a ticket. But Karunanidhi was definitely fishing in troubled waters.

Season for floor crossings
You know an election is coming when leaders, even MLAs, switch camps and start singing the praises of their new leaders. Disgruntlement is the primary cause and a close second is when their current party’s fortunes are dipping. In Kirubanidhi’s case, it was to jolt the BJP which had forgotten about a man who has spent decades with the party.

But there are other leaders whose opportunistic game is clear. Mylapore MLA S Ve Shekhar joined the Congress after flirting with the DMK for a year after he was thrown out of the AIADMK several months ago. He’s hoping to become the Brahmin face of the Congress (it’s the Brahmin support in Mylapore constituency that helped him in 2006 to defeat actor Napolean, now a union minister) four months after he met Rahul Gandhi in Delhi. “I explained to Rahul what I could do for the party and not what the party could do for me,” he said. But it’s what he did to Amma's party that caused her to toss him out. “Praising political rivals (he praised Stalin when he became deputy CM) on issues or sharing the same platform (with Dayanidhi Marn at the Chennai International film festival) with them should not be construed as an anti-party activity,” he says. Looks like he realized the world view was the same in the DMK. A liberal and tolerant political culture is what he wants in TN. That can never happen in the AIADMK or DMK. “We comment on the political culture in Bihar, but more than that state we need a good political culture in Tamil Nadu,” he says. Amen

Asked why the DMK was not his halt, the shrewd Shekhar says that the DMK’s anti-God projection (he calls it Aryan-Dravidian divide) did not go well with his constituents. “I would get a lot of flak from the community," says Shekhar who is the founder of the Federation of Brahmin associations in the state. So he’s joined the Congress and is dreaming of becoming a Rajya Sabha MP thanks to his film and theatre background.

The other defectors include CPM MLA from Tirupur C Govindasamy, AIADMK MLA from RK Nagar constituency PK Sekar Babu (to DMK), actor Radha Ravi and DMK Minister TPM Mohideen Khan’s brother TPM Mohammed Iqbal(both to DMK).

Freebies bankrupt state’s coffers?
Freebies did not cause the dent of Rs one lakh crore in Tamil Nadu’s coffers, emphasized Tamil Nadu CM M Karunanidhi when the opposition attacked him about the whopping debt soon after the Interim budget was presented in the legislative assembly last week. But he had no answer for the Chief Justice of the Madras high court, who was shocked to find the George Town court (and other courts are as dilapidated) in a shambles during a surprise visit. “Your government is not in a position to supply even 25 chairs but you are distributing lakhs and lakhs of televisions,” raged Mr Justice M.Y. Eqbal referring to the nearly 1.25 crore free colour TVs this government has distributed since 2006. For the record, this government has spent about Rs 3,500 crores on the televisions and that does not include the additional 10 lakh TV sets it will distribute before the elections. In fact, the CM confirmed its social security bill was humongous: Since 2006, the DMK government has spent Rs 61,727 crore. And in the Interim budget, Rs 20,304 crore has been allocated. 

And for the record, the judges diluted their anger (did a few quiet words do that trick?) a few days later saying they were not against all the sops this government has rained on the people. It just wants better infrastructure in the courts. Although the government has allocated Rs 300 crores for the smaller courts, no provision has been made for basic facilities for the hundreds of people and advocates who throng these courts in Chennai and districts daily.

Interestingly, for someone who embraces with open arms any comment made showing Karunanidhi’s governance in a bad light, Jayalalitha let this slide. The reason is that back in 2003 when she was the CM, her government too got a whiplash from the chief justice of the day. Mr Justice B Subhashan Reddy (now a Supreme Court judge) had remarked that her government was acting as if  “it was the boss of all finances.” The problem was the same – the cavalier attitude her government had displayed vis-à-vis infrastructural needs and staff appointments to courts. He had said, “We will have to close down courts. We will say the government is not financially sound. We will address the constitutional functionaries to invoke financial emergency.”

Booze helps pick up the tab
A section of the population wants prohibition and its poster boy is PMK chief Dr S Ramadoss. He says, “Tamil Nadu has become a state of tipplers. Banning liquor in the state would be a nobler act than spending crores of rupees on welfare doles.” But this state has had its share of liquor tragedies and Karunanidhi does not want to take that road. He finds Ramadoss harping on prohibiton irksome.

Apart from being impractical, selling liquor brings in big money to TN’s coffers. And that’s the reason successive governments are expanding their retail TASMAC sales network in every nook and corner of the state. Excise duty and sales tax on liquor contribute almost 25 per cent of the state’s revenue. Thanks to expansion and increasing prices of booze, the revenue collected has been going up by 15-23 per cent in the last five years. Revenue from liquor is estimated to cross Rs 13,500 crore this year.

Incidentally, many of their outlets add about Rs 50 (if it’s a premium brand) to the prices so they can make money. At New Year, when everyone wants to celebrate with a drink, these shops make a killing.

This government or amma’s government, for that matter) says no to prohibition but has banned toddy. Toddy, a natural drink, its votaries say, has health benefits if taken in moderation. Some farmers’ organisations in western Tamil Nadu have long been demanding the ban on toddy tapping be lifted, but the government is not listening. The reason is that it would be practically impossible to control this trade, and more to the point, there will be virtually no mechanism to control or collect toddy revenue. So cheap liquor or IMFL, pick your poison!

Cricket goes better with…
Speaking of booze, our Boys in Blue, playing their opening match here, will have to do with much less cheering from pubs and restaurants now that it has become illegal to telecast matches unless the establishment has acquired the necessary licence from Novex Communications. The fee to acquire the licence is big so pub owners are complaining. All these years they got away making money hand over fist as cricket lovers celebrated or drowned their sorrows. It was a win-win situation for them either way. Now the owners say, “Why should we pay licence fees when we are already paying up for DTH?” R. Srinivasan, secretary of Tamil Nadu Hotel Association (TNHA) says, “Most of our members are not interested in screening the matches because of this regulation. But since several bodies like the Federation of Hotel & Restaurant Associations of India (FHRAI) has gone to the Supreme Court for telecast rights, let’s see what happens.”

Theatres are gung ho about screening cricket because there are no big Bollywood or Kollywood releases that clash with the World Cup. So they can choose cricket over films and still make money. In fact, considering films are not a sure bet whereas cricket is, there’s no dilemma there. Popcorn, anyone?