Much ado about a nuisance!

Dr Radhakrishnan Saalai in Chennai has always fascinated me as a geographical metaphor for the political trends in TN. Entering it from the Gemini flyover end, there is a spot on the road wherein, if you take a left turn you reach the residence of CM K … Gopalapuram, not CIT Nagar. A right turn there would take you to Poes Garden where resides the Queen Bee of the AIADMK, that is, when she is not in Kodanadu C/o Nilgiris. The political traffic on this road much travelled has always been heavy with either of the two heavy weights alternating in power and the turns taken by the various political travellers would depend on who is ruling the roost, in State or Centre. It is now the turn of PMK, after turning left for about four turbulent years, to turn right now.

For the present, however, Dr Ramadoss looks stranded at the crossroads, with a no-entry sign hung on the left and nary a welcome arch on the right as he had expected. Of course, one can bet the Poes gates will eventually open, at least just enough for him to squeeze through, provided the maverick maruththuvar is ready to cut his own ego to size in due deference to the mighty one residing inside. But the Dr has little choice. Having literally talked himself out of the DPA, he has necessarily to beg his way into the new shelter. Well, not really new, as he had been there before. But then he and his bunch of self-styled BC-OBC champions have been everywhere over the last one decade.

The rise of Dr Ramadoss and his pocket-party PMK is an enduring sub-tragedy amidst the bigger disasters of the two major Dravidian dispensations. Dr R burst on the political scene sometime in 1988 claiming to be a messiah for the Vanniars, who in his view, were shortchanged in the socio-economic-education-employment spoils of the State. His agitating gang soon achieved notoriety for felling trees and blocking highways. The period was the immediate aftermath of MGR’s death with the State in a flux and under President’s rule. The vacuum was just right for the entry of such hot, albeit obnoxious, gases. The Cong at the Centre was aspiring to recapture TN that was lost in 1967 and so started indulging the avaricious Dr R. They fell out soon enough and the DMK-AIADMK musical chair re-started in 1989 with the Cong back as piggy-back. But by then Dr R had got political legitimacy. The felled trees were worth more than the axes. And the damage has gone beyond mere trees.

BC-OBC politics has always held sway in the country, but for almost four decades it was the preserve of the Congress. Dr R, therefore, could be deemed a pioneer of sorts who decentralised it in this part of the country and made it a potent political tool in the hands of smaller outfits, much ahead of the Laloos, Mulayams and Mayawatis. In fact, he preceded even ‘Weepy’ Singh in sensing the political potential of Backwardness. So as Dr R’s ambitions grew, emboldened by the attention his agitational politics was drawing, he sought to expand his horizons beyond his own caste. And the Vanniyar Sangam soon gave birth to the Paattali Makkal Katchi. But it is doubtful if the paattalis (toilers) outside the pale of his caste were ever fooled into throwing their lot with him.

The advent of coalitions at the centre in 1996 was the next big opportunity. The shrewd caste politician switched to power play. But it was not until 1998, a full decade after his debut, that he could taste real raw power. Thanks to J and BJP, the PMK as part of the NDA was now in Parliament and even the Central cabinet, though it had not a single MLA in the State. From then on, the PMK has been more or less a permanent fixture in the Centre, whoever the ruler and whatever the alliance. Sure even the DMK and its Baalus are as entrenched in Delhi as the Qutub Minar, but Dr R is different. His party has been the most promiscuous, partnering almost every other party registered with the EC. The PMK has been with the DMK, AIADMK, MDMK, the BJP, Congress, Left, you name it. And it has been moving so seamlessly between alliances and arrangements that anyone, if he bumps into Dr R, must ask ‘where are you?’ instead of ‘how are you?’. In short, the PMK is the personification of all that is evil about coalition politics.

With power has come some seeming sophistication. The PMK has learnt the art of putting up road blocks without resorting to de-forestation. May be they have run out of trees, but certainly not blackmailing tactics. And with vulnerable big brothers (or sisters), it has got away till date. For instance, it has succeeded in stalling virtually every development project, be it airport expansion or NLC or Satellite townships, on one pretext or another. Not that the projects were conceived with honourable intent by the rulers, but the PMK’s veto power is grossly disproportionate and wholly unconstitutional. And worse, the resolution of some issues points to more unseemly under the table deals! After all, nuisance has a value too.

This immoral political outfit is at the vanguard of every moral issue. Serious social problems like drinking, smoking in public, cultural degradation, capitation fee, and illegal sand mining have lost their sheen simply because the PMK is sponsoring them. Genuine activists and victims’ interests are lost in the din and stink raised by PMK, armed as it is with rotten tomatoes and even more rotten tongues. In reality, neither its decibel levels nor its legislative arithmetic is justified by its true ground level support base. The party has always won its way through alliances and secured plum posts through ransom politics. Its real strength has never been electorally tested and is anybody’s guess. So it’s time the bluff is called and the PMK is left to fend for itself. That would be a great relief to the State. And in the interest of J and K too, to be rid of blackmail, if that’s motivation enough.

If the Left and Right turns are closed, there is only one other option on RK Saalai for political nomads like PMK: Go straight and drown in the Bay of Bengal. For that’s where they all belong.

e-mail the writer at [email protected]