On 31 Dec, 2005, TN elections seemed like a distant affair. But just a week into 2006 and the political air is suddenly thick with poll talk.
A trip down the memory lanes and by-lanes of TN politics would confound the sanest of individuals. Even a casual study of the past decade will reveal how every party, without exception, has been swinging like pendulum from one extreme to the other, justifying all their immoral behaviour with impunity. The alibis could range from secularism, corruption to their pet dog’s toothache. Anything goes, but self-interest stays.
Barring an alliance between the DMK and the AIADMK, virtually every permutation or combination has happened. The foot-loose PMK, the long-dead TMC, its lost-and-found parent the Congress, the left-out Leftists, the perennial orphan MDMK, the much-divorced BJP and the countless caste outfits have all singularly displayed such high degrees of political promiscuity that would make even Khushboo’s pearls of wisdom on that subject pale.
Here is a recap of the last decade. Hope readers emerge unscathed after the ordeal:
In 1996 (LS plus Assembly polls) the Congress was in alliance with AIADMK while DMK had TMC and the Left parties with it. The latter won. In 1998 midterm LS polls the BJP got a foothold in TN in alliance with the AIADMK which had also brought into its fold the MDMK and the PMK.
Thirteen months later, the AIADMK brought down the BJP’s government warranting an election. While Jayalalithaa found common cause with ‘foreigner’ Sonia, the rationalist DMK embraced the nationalist ‘pandarams’, of the BJP. The MDMK and PMK stayed put with the BJP. The TMC, which was left in the lurch by the DMK, allied itself with the Congress, and by extension, the AIADMK despite the fact that the TMC owed its origins to its opposition to Jayalalithaa in 1996. P Chidambaram promptly kept aloof. The NDA won in the 1999 October LS polls.
Come 2001, it was poll time again in TN. Just on the eve of the Assembly elections, the PMK left the NDA and joined the AIADMK camp the very next day. Ramadoss accused Karunanidhi of acting like a Big Brother and added that Jayalalithaa was his sister. The DMK had the BJP and a few caste parties with it, while a piqued MDMK went it alone. The AIADMK formation, by now ‘secular’, had the Congress and the Left parties in it, besides the PMK. The latter won. And soon after, the PMK developed its customary itch and moved back to NDA and also secured its due share in the Central ministry within a month. Now for Dr Ramadoss, Big Brother K was okay while sister J was a betrayer. All within six months!
Eventually, the TMC merged with the Congress, while P Chidambaram ploughed a lone furrow. The Congress also drifted away from the AIADMK and no one knew if there was an alliance between them at all. Post SC observations, Jayalalithaa had to step down as CM and OP, ..no, not outpatient, but O Panneerselvam became the CM. He promptly vacated the gaddi once J was cleared of legal hurdles and won her way back to the Assembly.
Enter 2003. Soon after nephew Maran’s death that year end, K suddenly developed secular stirrings and quit the ‘communal’ NDA, after being part of it for full four and half years including the Godhra days. The MDMK and PMK followed suit, the infectious secular bug having bitten them too. Yes, it was poll time again. And lo, within days Arivalayam was swarming with Congmen and Commies, who were only too willing to welcome back their ‘ prodigal secular’ ally. The DMK also had itself exonerated by Sonia’s Congress from the Justice Jain Commission’s findings, the pretext on which the Congress dumped the UF government in 1997. The BJP for its part was now back in the AIADMK front, having buried the bad memories of April 1999! To the AIADMK, Sonia was back being a foreigner. The NDA lost and it is now a Cong-led UPA government at the Centre. The DMK, MDMK and PMK continue seamlessly in gay abandon in their respective ministries as they did in the NDA rule. Incidentally, the BJP’s alliance with the AIADMK is officially off now.
It is in this context that Polls Circa 2006 unfolds in TN. While some old players like the TMC have ceased to exist, new ones like Vijayakanth have jumped into the arena with tall claims. And fence sitters like the MDMK and the PMK have already started upping their ante. Dr Ramadoss particularly is sure to take a drive down Dr Radhakrishnan Saalai, but whether he will the take the right into Poes Garden or the left into Gopalapuram is anybody’s guess. But rest assured, he will not drive straight down to the sea and sink; he is too clever for that. For that matter, all of these fringe parties will be at their calculating best. And they would fit into either of the camps easily and cosily, without qualms. Of course, the unstated agreement is that any alliance is only for the polls, not a day beyond that.
Can anyone make any sense of all this? The people want the politicians to rise above politics to serve them, but our politicos are ready to even rise above principles to preserve themselves! Perhaps this is what they mean by the much touted ‘Self-respect’, i.e., respecting their own ‘self’ above everything else!
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