THE GREAT INDIAN CIRCUS
The bluff that boomerangs
It is our turn to get ‘wicked’. The Tamilnadu Chief Minister’s certificate to himself about his nationalistic credentials does provoke cynics like us to take a peep into his past Of course, quite a few enquiry commissions havedone this before, but since the CM makes claims that run contrary to those findings, maybe he deserves the benefit of doubt, which warrants another close look at his very nationalistic activities.
To quote Karunanidhi: The DMK government had never failed in taking firm action against those who sought to work against the unity and integrity of the nation. And as proof of his contention he cites the arrest of the TNLA founder, Sundaram, yesterday. When quizzed about his softness towards the LTTE, he evades a direct reply but throws up a counter question on his opponents’ support to the terrorist outfit.
The CM appears quite indignant that someone should doubt his pro-national leanings and instead dub him and his party as anti-national. He takes consolation from the ‘fact’ that the people of the State and leaders all over the country would know how baseless these charges were’. Our own research into the Thaanai thalaivan’s career has also been quite Irevealing and rather goes in line with what Karunanidhi thinks of himself. Only that, a few words and phrases need to be redefined or shall we say, reinterpreted.
Take for instance Corruption. The Karunanidhi reign of the early seven-ties was dismissed on this count and subsequently earned the certificate from a Judge named Sarkaria for pioneering and perfecting the art of pillage and pilferage. Was it not nationalism at its best? Today corruption is a national malaise, sorry, culture. It naturally follows that those who practise it must also be nationalists. But, pray, who first brought it into the political lexicon? Is he not a great visionary who could see clearly through his dark glasses and darker deeds, which path India would be taking in future? Multitudes may climb the Everest today. But will the world not, forever remember the first one who scaled it? Same logic.
There is next the LTTE brand of Indian nationalism. The CM says he has never failed to act against anti-nationals. But then the whole world knows his and his party’s affinity and affection for the LTTE, that was markedly different from the support ex-tended by the other political parties in the country. The inference then should be that the CM considers the LITE militants nationalists. He would have certainly opposed them and even brought them to book only if he had considered them anti-nationals. So you see, when LTTE militants roamed about Tamilnadu in gay abandon, built up their militant and intelligence base, and then killed Padmanabha and fourteen others in broad daylight and were able to ‘just’ walk away to safety, they have only been promoting Indian nationalism.
And that precisely was why Karunanidhi had been offering unsolicited and unqualified support and patronage to the cause and activities of his very pro-national ethnic brethren. Nationalism at its bliss, no doubt.
There is another torch-bearer of nationalism answering to the name Veerappan who would rank as the proverbial proof of the pudding for Karunanidhi’s resolve to fight anti-nationals. Apparently, the CM thinks the forest brigand does not fall in the latter category. The all out pre-election and post-election efforts of the DMK and its satellite arm to highlight the brigand’s points of view and the open overtures and assurances to him if only he surrendered, and the regime’s self proclaimed inability to nab him are all services in the cause of Indian nationalism. The overzealous efforts to bring the brigand to the mainstream and then into politics, evidently to give him company in fighting the evil forces represented by the non-brigands, speak volumes of the DMK and its chief’s commitment to nationalism. That the brigand is still at large and better still, the fact that there is not a soul on his trail goes on to prove that Karunanidhi feels the nation needs the services of the outlaw to promote, no doubt, the nation’s interests from the jungles. The fragrance of nationalism that emanates overpowers even that of sandalwood.
Last but not the very last, comes those pro-nationals who quietly born-barded Coimbatore on a sunny Saturday afternoon, when elections were just a few days away. Apparently, these historysheeters did not figure in the DMK chief’s list of anti-nationals. Otherwise, rest assured, his government would have certainly apprehended them. These secular nationalists of the Al-Umma variety were building up their arsenal of pipe bombs, petrol bombs and et al only for the cause of peace and in furtherance of secularism. They had distributed kniyes to their members only to cut butter and vegetables and were carrying guns on their person just to shoot mosquitoes. To even think that these lambs would hurt a fly, leave-alone kill humans would have itself been a violation of their (in)human rights. How can a nationalist like Karunanidhi take action against them, even if some silly politicians of the opposition were making queer noises about ISI infiltration and so on? After all even the law says that one is innocent unless proved guilty and it would have been treason to even suspect such nationalist outfits like Al-Umma and Jihad committee, when their ‘sacred’ intentions were open secrets all along.
With such a cherished history of fighting anti-nationals and all those forces inimical to the ‘unity and integrity’ of the nation, it would be a sin and even quite wicked on our part to accuse the DMK and its chief of being anti-national. On the contrary, it is we, the incurable and incorrigible critics of the CM who are being anti-national by being anti-Veerappan, anti-LTTE and anti-Al Umma.
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