Chennai Corner

Sop Opera

Soon after DMK patriarch and CM M Karunanidhi released the manifesto, Dravida Kazhagam president K Veeramani’s described it thus: “If the DMK’s poll manifesto for the 2006 assembly elections was a hero, then this manifesto is a heroine. It will definitely win the election for the DMK-led alliance.” His reference was to the free colour TV promised in 2006 and the woman-friendly promise of mixies and grinders he has now made.

Not to be left behind, the AIADMK has also promised the earth, moon and stars to the electorate. A section of society is worried that these freebies will reduce the people into beggars. A section wants no freebies but demands good governance, a section is suffering because the labour they are dependent on to work in their fields have become a “bunch of vagabonds eating rice at Re 1, watching free colour TV and getting money under the NREGA scheme for merely signing and then spending it on booze (annual excise revenue to the state is Rs 13,000 crore)". But Dravidian parties think freebies are the only formula for catching votes.

Incidentally, the BJP which is contesting 194 seats rubbishes the sop deluge of the DMK and AIADMK but promises an annual free medical check up to BPL families, apart from laptops (to Plus 1 and Plus 2 students) and pens and pencils “to encourage students to study better.”

If Wishes Were Horses...

Independents have decided to beat the Dravidian parties at their own game. Only Dravidian parties rule the state and get the exchequer to underwrite the freebies. How will the Independents deliver on their extravagant promises? There’s Independent candidate from Salem (north), M A Shahjahan, an advocate, who has promised Nano cars, cellphones, gensets, free cable TV and even pocket money to students. A Taj Mahal for lady loves is the only thing this Shahjahan has not promised.

Shahjahan says he can lavish all these goodies on his two lakh electorate from the 2G scam money. To break the DMK monopoly on the skies (something even the CM’s elder son M K Azhagiri could not do to the Marans who own Sun TV when the Karunanidhi clan was in a state of internal war with itself) he’s going to offer even Cable TV free. Of course, free cable will go hand in hand with a free 21 inch colour TV (as opposed to the 14 inch colour TVs given by the DMK government.) In a power starved state, Shahjahan’s solution is to give out gensets and to run the latter on 20 litres of diesel he plans to supply free. To outdo Kalaignar and Amma’s promise of mixies and grinders he’s going to take women back several decades and give them atukal and amikal (the traditional stone grinders that our grandmothers used). If Kalaignar and Amma have promised free rice, he’s going to give away groceries and provisions for free. And parents will surely be happy because he’s going to give students (from Class 1 till they become graduates) pocket money (between Rs 500 and Rs 1500).

Being Facetious?

Another independent candidate from Musiri, Kannaiyan, has promised free gold coins to voters and three cents of land to those who worked for him apart from free cable TV connections. Then there’s Vincent Paul from Manapparai, who has offered gold chain of five sovereigns to all girls before their marriage.Another independent from Kanchipuram, A N Radhakrishnan, has promised: “Two MBBS, two BDS, five nursing and 15 engineering seats to needy students.” Unlike the other independents, Radhakrishanan may deliver because he is the Chairman of the Meenakshi Educational Trust which runs 20 institutions including a medical, dental, engineering, nursing and catering college, apart from a hospital.

And Soap Opera...

“Daal me kuch kaala hai” is an appropriate expression for the full-blown drama happening in the Congress, which has expelled eight rebels. It certainly did not need this after being saddled with a 2G-hobbled DMK as its partner. To think its groups actually dreamt of being a coalition partner and demanded and got 63 seats. But they cannot even agree on candidates. Congressmen say they have a leader (TNCC president K V Thangabalu) whose hallmark has been to keep the party’s interests secondary and his family’s interests paramount.

Days after the party office bore the brunt of Congressmen – they burnt Thangabalu’s effigy, berated him publicly, trashed the TNCC office – rebels entered the fray, incensed that he had put his wife, Jayanthi, as the candidate from Mylapore assembly constituency. And then the anti-climax when both her candidatures were rejected (incidentally,1153 of a total 4,228 nominations have been rejected) because two of the documents were not signed.

After enacting a drama by sending Karthik with a complaint about bad scrutiny, now Thangabalu is the official candidate. How? Because he sneaked in on the last day and filed as a dummy candidate. After Jayanthi’s rejection, Thangabalu, after handing the high command a fait accompli, is the real candidate but knives are out for him including from sitting MLA S Ve Shekhar who joined the Congress after being expelled by the AIADMK. Then he has to contend with rebel candidate M Sivakami, also the South Chennai Congress secretary. She asks, “Do Thangabalu and his wife expect us to believe that they had not cross-checked papers before filing? Who are they trying to hoodwink?” Who indeed?

The joke here is that Thangabalu wants to emulate Karunanidhi in terms of dynastic rule. So, even before the Congress list was released, a bunch of his sycophants filed applications on behalf of his son. Only problem was Kartick, an engineer and director of Mega TV, at 24 years, is not qualified to contest. The qualifying age is 25. Watch out for him in the next elections. If Thangabalu, who managed to get 13 tickets for his supporters initially (pared down to 10 after Congressmen foamed at the mouth) is still in the reckoning after he botched up the Congress tickets.

The Missing Candidate

If the Chief can be a dummy, why can’t the husband of another candidate picked by the Congresss? This is the curious case of M Haseena Syed (whose husband, R Syed Ghiaz Ul-Huq, was a dummy and is now the candidate) an anchor in the Thangabalu-owned Mega TV of which Jayanthi is the MD) and is also the vice-chairperson of the TNCC Minority wing. Thangabalu had intitally got Haseena (who also runs an airhostess training academy in Chennai), the ticket from Krishnagiri, but after the outrage by Congressmen, three of his candidate including Haseena was dropped.

Sitting MLA N Maqbool Jan was declared as the candidate, only he did not show up to file his nomination. Although Krishanagiri is four hours by road from Chennai, he claimed he could not make it before closing of the nomination at 3 pm. “I am shocked. I missed the opportunity, as I could not get papers ready and attested by a notary. I cannot say anything more.” But other Congressmen said a lot – that Jan had “volunteered” to stay out, that he had been bought over. Local Congressmen were angry that “outsiders” like Haseena had muscled in, so nine of them, including Aga Krishnamurthy and L Subramani filed their nominations. The last two have been accepted, but don’t have the party symbol.

Haseena was livid with her mentor, Thangabalu because the latter has asked her to withdraw from the fray. “Thangabalu threatened me that if I did not oblige, I would be removed from the party.” She dug her heels in; but the next day she produced her dummy, husband Syed Ghiaz ul-Huq. Expect trouble here in the face of a strong AIADMK candidate, K P Munuswamy, who is a former MP.