Carry on, doctor!

As the earth beneath the fragile NDA edifice shook for the umpteenth time since1998, it is no coincidence that the epicentre has once again been Tamilnadu. Pundits may claim that the exit of the PMK was only expected, but then with Ramadoss, one can never be too sure.

The pundits would still have been dead right had they predicted that he would have stuck with the NDA. The man has this uncanny knack of proving everybody wrong and at the same time making everyone seem right. Again it may take him just a jiffy to right a wrong or vice versa.

The chances of his staying on with the NDA were as bright as the probability of his quitting it. Needless to say, either way there is nothing that can even be remotely called ideology or morals in his action. This bird just migrates on impulse, at the scent of prey, read, power.

Look at the post-haste manner in which the man acted, losing no time in rushing to Poes Garden decked with bouquets and some partymen (brickbats?). After bidding adieu to the PM, he just had to wait for the night to end and the first rays of dawn to emerge, and lo, he was knocking at his ‘sister’s’ door, next only to the milkman and the newspaperboy.

This desperation too, like his unpredictability, is typical of him – a ploy – for the man is known to stoop to conquer, or to put it in modern political parlance, stoop to pull the rug. This euphoria may well ebb out if the reliable sister chooses to imitate the rational big brother and fails to rise upto the doctor’s prescription on electoral arrangements.

If that happens, as it might, his next drive down Dr Radhakrishnan salai, assuming he is cruising in from Gemini, may well not take the right turn, but in all probability go down the road, take the left to Gopalapuram for a quick darshan of the yellow streak. And have no doubts, just as the understanding sister had no qualms about accepting the prodigal partner, the big brother too would be willing to forget and forgive. Ramadoss invariably gets the audience that he rightly deserves.

The PMK and its maverick leader are in a way reflective of the kind of politics that is being played out both at the national and the State level. The party and its sole soul just hold a mirror to all that is evil in today’s polity. Name any reprehensible trait, be it, corruption, casteism, nepotism, sectarianism, anti-national postures, lack of scruples or anything, the PMK has these attributes in abundance – a unique but disturbing convergence.

And yet the party is the most wooed political outfit in the State nay the nation itself, if Ramadoss ‘ s account of Vajpayee’s parting pleadings are to be believed. Successive elections, particularly to the LS have only enhanced the PMK’s political clout, even beyond the borders of TN to distant Delhi.

Never mind, if the PMK ministers were just rubbing their seats thin, doing nothing worth their while, but the fact remains that the party, its founder and of course, the ubiquitous son, a doctor again, have emerged greatly enriched after a few stints at those Bhavans. It is possible that they might have just stretched their hands more out of boredom than out of avarice, but they seem to have certainly found the exercise most rewarding. But to the credit of the PMK founder, it must be said that he had never raised his finger against corruption in all his political life unlike his hypocritical peers. Bless the soul that knows thyself well!

If caste based parties are sprouting all over the fertile political fields of the State like the weed, the PMK has every right to gloat over the trend for setting it off in the first place, a pioneer of sorts. The strategic caste base of the party, spread over the northern part of TN, is a big draw and an irresistible lure for the political majors of the State though one has to only rely on the PMK ‘ s own claims about its electoral strength and resultant invincibility in that belt.

Though doubts were raised even in those heady days – when the party hit the highways armed with freshly cut timber and boulders demanding reservations for its caste people – about the arithmetical inconsistencies vis-a-vis the Vanniar population, none dared call their bluff. The spark, neglected then, is all set to consume the State today.

Doctors needn ‘ t be reminded that blood is thicker than water. So who best to represent one‘s caste than one’s own offspring? In tune with TN’s reputation as the Land of Rising Sons, the PMK too has its version ready. There is some vague recollection of the good Doctor’s own fatwa against dynastic politics, symbolised in the form of a whip hung on the wall of the party office, but who would dare bring up such uncomfortable memories?
Why should anyone wield the whip when pelf and political power have inundated the party no end? In any case, does not dynastic continuity ensure a secure and prosperous future? So what if the PMK is out of the Union cabinet, there is always a nearby Union territory to compensate!

There is not a single major political outfit in the state that has not demanded a ban on the PMK for its open allegiance to the LTTE. It is an altogether different matter the PMK has had the last laugh by aligning with some of them, but then in the personality oriented hatred politics of TN, even the ISI would be perfectly fine, so long as it helps vanquish a local enemy. Every rabid ideology and its extremist protagonist could bank on the PMK’s unhesitating support and solidarity.

Be it LTTE or Veerappan or the now popular Tamil militants, there is no secret about where the PMK’s sympathies lie.Yet its partners look the other way and even the opponents just make mute protests, because one cannot predict in who’s favour the next blank cheque will be drawn from the doctor’s so called vote bank. Even the Congress and the TMC, for whom the PMK is a natural enemy, cannot be trusted to keep off from the alliance in which the latter is a partner as ‘some people’ can never be choosers.

Also, you see, one has to save and salvage secularism at all costs, the argument will go. Again, what is the problem so long as they do not rub shoulders with the PMK on the same platform despite being in the same alliance?

Karunanidhi’s loss may be Jayalalitha’s gain today, just as it was in 1998 even while the opposite was true in 1999. But does anyone bother about the detriment to the State owing to the rise of a Frankenstein monster and its endless antics? One shudders to imagine what would happen if the PMK were to secure a decisive number of seats in the Assembly, capable of tilting the power equations between the two major formations.

Have these leaders still not realised that in such a scenario it will not take the doctor much time to reinvent his migratory instincts and take wings, like that vampire of Vikramaditya fame? The House will be rocked even without any help from an earthquake!