DMK in the throes of uncertainty

G.Srinivasan

PM Narendra Modi consoles DMK leader MK Stalin as he pays his last respects to Karunanidhi at Rajaji Hall in Chennai The state of Tamil Nadu, inured to electing a regional party for close to five decades ever since the undivided Congress lost its grip in 1967 with the demise of its illustrious leader Kamaraj, is now in the throes of a great spell of uncertainty.
The abrupt exit of the most popular leader Jayalaitha from the political scene by the cruel hands of death after she retained power in 2016 for the second term in a row from her earlier break of a two-spell, in December 2016 was followed by her arch rival and formidable Dravidian leader Kalingar Muthuvel Karunanidhi on August 7 due to age-related ailments. That Tamil Nadu lost two of its prominent leaders, who played to the gallery on their own terms, in a span of 20 months or thereabouts is a shocker, the repercussions and ramifications of which would be far-reaching in terms of the approaching 2019 General Elections for the BJP and the Congress. They must perforce have to be faced with the classic dilemma of how to right guess as to ride on the back of either of the potentially winning one to get their calculations correct in terms of forming a government at the Centre. But the indisputable fact remains that neither the BJP nor the Congress could afford to ignore both and contest the Lok Sabah polls on their own strength under the mistaken notion that both the Dravidian parties’ lost their sheen with the passing away of their titanic leaders.

Karunadhi was shaping himself as a crusader against not only caste and oppression but also imposition of Hindi as a compulsory language to be studied in schools in Tamil Nadu. When the anti- Hindi agitation began in the State in the 1960s he led the protest by inflammatory speeches and direct action in mobilizing young students in colleges and schools.

The Dravida Munnetra Kaghagam or what is popularly known as DMK hogged the limelight in the mid-1960s when it came to power for the first time under the leadership of CN Annadurai. The DMK is the offshoot or offspring of the Dravida Katchi (DK), founded by the rationalist leader EV Ramasamy. EVR, as he was so fondly called by his acolytes, married at a ripe old age with a woman much younger in age which infuriated a few leaders within. This coupled with persistent anti-Brahmanism, wounding the sentiments of lakhs of Hindus by lampooning their Gods and preaching of open session as a separate nation added fodder for the erudite Annadurai to come out openly against the DK ideologies to form the DMK in the 1950s.
Karunanidhi’s formative life was shaped largely by the nostrums fed by the Dravidian movements; his education did not proceed beyond the initial years of the secondary schooling but by association with Annadurai and with a cultivated interest in Tamil literature became a prodigy as a poet and public speaker par excellence by exuding rationalist ideas to question conventions, caste system and suppression of the underprivileged sections.
Being born in a poor ‘isai vellalar’ caste, Karunanidhi only knew too well how the gradations of caste had wrought untold miseries among the poor and hapless people in fighting for social justice and to get the due recognition as a human being by sedulously attempting to ostracize the odious practice of segregation, exclusion and exploitation of many by a privileged few in the name of birth and lineage.
Karunadhi was shaping himself as a crusader against not only caste and oppression but also imposition of Hindi as a compulsory language to be studied in schools in Tamil Nadu. So when the anti-Hindi agitation began in the State in the 1960s he led the protest by inflammatory speeches and direct action in mobilizing young students in colleges and schools. Though a generation of Tamil boys and girls lost the opportunity to learn the national language because of the strident protests led by the DMK and to move with ease to any other Northern States in quest of job opportunities, this did not detract the patron-saint of anti-Hindi agitation.
Karunandhi in his overzealousness to prevent the changing the nomenclature of a railway station put his head on the rails of a track, proudly declaring that “ en udambu intha mannuku and intha uyir en Thamiliku”( this body is for the grave and my soul is for my Tamil)—such was his obduracy against imposition of Hindi in Tamil Nadu and for decades Hindi could not be taught in any school, private or public as a second language, though it is altogether a different delectable saga that most of the Bollywood movies had and continue to have a roaring business in the state, giving a run to the vernacular movies to the vexatious concern of Tamil artists and producers who had to match the resources and deep-pockets of moguls of Mumbai’s tinsel world to break even!
Though Karunanidhi had the distinction of five times Chief Minister and was elected thirteen times in his political career spanning more than seven decades till his nonagenarian stage that snatched his life at the ripe age of 94, he had many a mortifying moment in his personal and political life that saw his fortunes fluctuating from the height of success to the depth of despondency. The biggest miscalculation he made during his slick political career known for

After the death of the DMK party founder and chief minister Annadurai in 1969, MGR helped Karunanidhi to get him succeed Anna, disregarding many a senior in the party. But as MGR’s popularity within the party was soaring even as he was getting meaty role and riches in the filmdom, Karunandhi suspected MGR of outsmarting him in the game of throne!

M.G Ramachandran astuteness and dexterous diplomacy to outfox even the crafty foxes that abound in the political jungle was about the expulsion of the matinee idol M.G Ramachandran, popularly known as MGR.
After the death of the DMK party founder, and chief minister Annadurai in 1969, MGR helped Karunanidhi to get him succeed Anna, disregarding many a senior in the party. But as MGR’s popularity within the party was soaring even as he was getting meaty role and riches in the filmdom, Karunandhi suspected MGR of outsmarting him in the game of throne!

Jayalalithaa Jayaram A restless MGR, always sporting a spotless image with a mass following of his own and acting only as a good Samaritan in all his films, sought to audit the accounts of the party as he suspected some siphoning off of funds! This naturally provoked the then CM and MGR was expelled from the primary membership of the party in 1972.
After this the rest as they say was history with MGR converting the challenges into opportunities by floating his own party in the name of his mentor and primary founder Annadhurai by christening his party as Anna Dravida Munnetra Kaghagam (ADMK) which subsequently morphed into All India Anna DMK or AIDAMK as it is known today.
Once MGR was out in the open and formed AIADMK, the elected DMK in 1972 got its tenure cut short when during Emergency Indira Gandhi dismissed the DMK government (March 31, 1976) before its completion of the fiveyear term, thanks to the relentless campaign carried by MGR against the alleged acts of commission and omission by the Karuna raj.
It is also interesting that the same Congress-I got his government dismissed in January 1991 on frivolous diary charges, as

On balance, Karunandhi did a few salutary things in terms of reservation for the backward classes, the dalits, fighting for the causes of the State’s functional autonomy and social justice and welfareoriented measures for the weak, the vulnerable and the downtrodden. In his long spell spread over five terms, he did not do much to nurture the industrial base built by the Congress or promote employment for educated by purposive public policy actions other than letting others glorify him by launching special functions to honour him for his yeoman’s services to film world, Tamil language and other issues that have entertainment in focus than uplift of people at large.

it was backing the minority Chandrasekhar Government at the Centre. For Karunanidhi twice his tenure was cut short thus by the Congress and it was little wonder that he backed the Vajpayee Government in 1999 and the DMK got itself perched at the right place to get things done for his party, his state and his family in that order for four years! Though they had their central minister Murusoli Maran who was a nephew of Karunanidhi, this

Now that he is dead, there is no threat to his popularity. The rumblings of sibling rivalries are more apparent than real. His successor and the second son Stalin, born to his second wife, enjoys the solid support of the rank and file of a cadre- based party.

could not prevent the Jaya Administration from arresting the septuagenarian leader at midnight! In 2004, a once-bitten twice-shy Karunanidhi, shed his rancor against the Congress and rejoined the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government post-election and secured his prominence for a decade till the UPA lost its luster by its own shenanigans and political peccadilloes. It was during this long stay with the UPA that the DMK party was able to soak its hands in alleged 2-G scams the fallout of which saw an ailing Karunandhi dismayed by the sight of his second wife being questioned by enforcement directorate and his daughter Kanimoghiz born to his third wife Rajathi imprisoned in Tihar for a year.
So the evening of his life was not enlivened by any cheerful tidings other than the sudden demise of his rival Jayalalithaa but then Karuna himself was incapacitated by back ailments and his fiery oratorical abilities cut to a whimper confined as he was to a wheel chair for a year or thereabouts.
On balance, Karunandhi did a few salutary things in terms of reservation for the backward classes, the dalits, fighting for the causes of the State’s functional autonomy and social justice and welfare-oriented measures for the weak, the vulnerable and the downtrodden. In his long spell spread over five terms, he did not do much to nurture the industrial base built by the Congress or promote employment for educated by purposive public policy actions other than letting others glorify him by launching special functions to honour him for his yeoman’s services to film world, Tamil language and other issues that have entertainment in focus than uplift of people at large.
Now that he is dead, there is no threat to his popularity. The rumblings of sibling rivalries are more apparent than real as his successor and the second son Stalin, born to his second wife, enjoys the solid support of the rank and file of a cadre- based party. Whether this loyalty of the party will help in getting votes for the leader sans mass base like his father is a moot point, the answer for which would be known only at the 2019 Lok Sabha polls when the party without the patriarch faces the litmus test for the first time in its long history.



		EDITOR'S MAIL EDITOR'S COMMENT FRANKLY SPEAKING REALPOLITIK ISI WEB DRUG MENACE IN PUNJAB FARMERS' LOAN WINDOW ON M.P. HIMACHAL AGONY LOOKING BACK SIGNS OF THE TIMES PAKISTAN TODAY DRAGON DRILL IN TIBET MODI'S DIPLOMACY GLOBAL AFFAIRS REVIEW ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS HITS & MISSES DIARY BOOK BAZAAR BOOK BAZAAR CHANGING TIMES THIRD SEX YOGA IN DAILY LIFE A SPRITUAL GURU ART OF LIVING Issue:August' 2018 Subscribe Now	TAMIL NADU TRENDS DMK in the throes of uncertainty G.Srinivasan PM Narendra Modi consoles DMK leader MK Stalin as he pays his last respects to Karunanidhi at Rajaji Hall in Chennai The state of Tamil Nadu, inured to electing a regional party for close to five decades ever since the undivided Congress lost its grip in 1967 with the demise of its illustrious leader Kamaraj, is now in the throes of a great spell of uncertainty. The abrupt exit of the most popular leader Jayalaitha from the political scene by the cruel hands of death after she retained power in 2016 for the second term in a row from her earlier break of a two-spell, in December 2016 was followed by her arch rival and formidable Dravidian leader Kalingar Muthuvel Karunanidhi on August 7 due to age-related ailments. That Tamil Nadu lost two of its prominent leaders, who played to the gallery on their own terms, in a span of 20 months or thereabouts is a shocker, the repercussions and ramifications of which would be far-reaching in terms of the approaching 2019 General Elections for the BJP and the Congress. They must perforce have to be faced with the classic dilemma of how to right guess as to ride on the back of either of the potentially winning one to get their calculations correct in terms of forming a government at the Centre. But the indisputable fact remains that neither the BJP nor the Congress could afford to ignore both and contest the Lok Sabah polls on their own strength under the mistaken notion that both the Dravidian parties’ lost their sheen with the passing away of their titanic leaders. Karunadhi was shaping himself as a crusader against not only caste and oppression but also imposition of Hindi as a compulsory language to be studied in schools in Tamil Nadu. When the anti- Hindi agitation began in the State in the 1960s he led the protest by inflammatory speeches and direct action in mobilizing young students in colleges and schools. The Dravida Munnetra Kaghagam or what is popularly known as DMK hogged the limelight in the mid-1960s when it came to power for the first time under the leadership of CN Annadurai. The DMK is the offshoot or offspring of the Dravida Katchi (DK), founded by the rationalist leader EV Ramasamy. EVR, as he was so fondly called by his acolytes, married at a ripe old age with a woman much younger in age which infuriated a few leaders within. This coupled with persistent anti-Brahmanism, wounding the sentiments of lakhs of Hindus by lampooning their Gods and preaching of open session as a separate nation added fodder for the erudite Annadurai to come out openly against the DK ideologies to form the DMK in the 1950s. Karunanidhi’s formative life was shaped largely by the nostrums fed by the Dravidian movements; his education did not proceed beyond the initial years of the secondary schooling but by association with Annadurai and with a cultivated interest in Tamil literature became a prodigy as a poet and public speaker par excellence by exuding rationalist ideas to question conventions, caste system and suppression of the underprivileged sections. Being born in a poor ‘isai vellalar’ caste, Karunanidhi only knew too well how the gradations of caste had wrought untold miseries among the poor and hapless people in fighting for social justice and to get the due recognition as a human being by sedulously attempting to ostracize the odious practice of segregation, exclusion and exploitation of many by a privileged few in the name of birth and lineage. Karunadhi was shaping himself as a crusader against not only caste and oppression but also imposition of Hindi as a compulsory language to be studied in schools in Tamil Nadu. So when the anti-Hindi agitation began in the State in the 1960s he led the protest by inflammatory speeches and direct action in mobilizing young students in colleges and schools. Though a generation of Tamil boys and girls lost the opportunity to learn the national language because of the strident protests led by the DMK and to move with ease to any other Northern States in quest of job opportunities, this did not detract the patron-saint of anti-Hindi agitation. Karunandhi in his overzealousness to prevent the changing the nomenclature of a railway station put his head on the rails of a track, proudly declaring that “ en udambu intha mannuku and intha uyir en Thamiliku”( this body is for the grave and my soul is for my Tamil)—such was his obduracy against imposition of Hindi in Tamil Nadu and for decades Hindi could not be taught in any school, private or public as a second language, though it is altogether a different delectable saga that most of the Bollywood movies had and continue to have a roaring business in the state, giving a run to the vernacular movies to the vexatious concern of Tamil artists and producers who had to match the resources and deep-pockets of moguls of Mumbai’s tinsel world to break even! Though Karunanidhi had the distinction of five times Chief Minister and was elected thirteen times in his political career spanning more than seven decades till his nonagenarian stage that snatched his life at the ripe age of 94, he had many a mortifying moment in his personal and political life that saw his fortunes fluctuating from the height of success to the depth of despondency. The biggest miscalculation he made during his slick political career known for After the death of the DMK party founder and chief minister Annadurai in 1969, MGR helped Karunanidhi to get him succeed Anna, disregarding many a senior in the party. But as MGR’s popularity within the party was soaring even as he was getting meaty role and riches in the filmdom, Karunandhi suspected MGR of outsmarting him in the game of throne! M.G Ramachandran astuteness and dexterous diplomacy to outfox even the crafty foxes that abound in the political jungle was about the expulsion of the matinee idol M.G Ramachandran, popularly known as MGR. After the death of the DMK party founder, and chief minister Annadurai in 1969, MGR helped Karunanidhi to get him succeed Anna, disregarding many a senior in the party. But as MGR’s popularity within the party was soaring even as he was getting meaty role and riches in the filmdom, Karunandhi suspected MGR of outsmarting him in the game of throne! Jayalalithaa Jayaram A restless MGR, always sporting a spotless image with a mass following of his own and acting only as a good Samaritan in all his films, sought to audit the accounts of the party as he suspected some siphoning off of funds! This naturally provoked the then CM and MGR was expelled from the primary membership of the party in 1972. After this the rest as they say was history with MGR converting the challenges into opportunities by floating his own party in the name of his mentor and primary founder Annadhurai by christening his party as Anna Dravida Munnetra Kaghagam (ADMK) which subsequently morphed into All India Anna DMK or AIDAMK as it is known today. Once MGR was out in the open and formed AIADMK, the elected DMK in 1972 got its tenure cut short when during Emergency Indira Gandhi dismissed the DMK government (March 31, 1976) before its completion of the fiveyear term, thanks to the relentless campaign carried by MGR against the alleged acts of commission and omission by the Karuna raj. It is also interesting that the same Congress-I got his government dismissed in January 1991 on frivolous diary charges, as On balance, Karunandhi did a few salutary things in terms of reservation for the backward classes, the dalits, fighting for the causes of the State’s functional autonomy and social justice and welfareoriented measures for the weak, the vulnerable and the downtrodden. In his long spell spread over five terms, he did not do much to nurture the industrial base built by the Congress or promote employment for educated by purposive public policy actions other than letting others glorify him by launching special functions to honour him for his yeoman’s services to film world, Tamil language and other issues that have entertainment in focus than uplift of people at large. it was backing the minority Chandrasekhar Government at the Centre. For Karunanidhi twice his tenure was cut short thus by the Congress and it was little wonder that he backed the Vajpayee Government in 1999 and the DMK got itself perched at the right place to get things done for his party, his state and his family in that order for four years! Though they had their central minister Murusoli Maran who was a nephew of Karunanidhi, this Now that he is dead, there is no threat to his popularity. The rumblings of sibling rivalries are more apparent than real. His successor and the second son Stalin, born to his second wife, enjoys the solid support of the rank and file of a cadre- based party. could not prevent the Jaya Administration from arresting the septuagenarian leader at midnight! In 2004, a once-bitten twice-shy Karunanidhi, shed his rancor against the Congress and rejoined the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government post-election and secured his prominence for a decade till the UPA lost its luster by its own shenanigans and political peccadilloes. It was during this long stay with the UPA that the DMK party was able to soak its hands in alleged 2-G scams the fallout of which saw an ailing Karunandhi dismayed by the sight of his second wife being questioned by enforcement directorate and his daughter Kanimoghiz born to his third wife Rajathi imprisoned in Tihar for a year. So the evening of his life was not enlivened by any cheerful tidings other than the sudden demise of his rival Jayalalithaa but then Karuna himself was incapacitated by back ailments and his fiery oratorical abilities cut to a whimper confined as he was to a wheel chair for a year or thereabouts. On balance, Karunandhi did a few salutary things in terms of reservation for the backward classes, the dalits, fighting for the causes of the State’s functional autonomy and social justice and welfare-oriented measures for the weak, the vulnerable and the downtrodden. In his long spell spread over five terms, he did not do much to nurture the industrial base built by the Congress or promote employment for educated by purposive public policy actions other than letting others glorify him by launching special functions to honour him for his yeoman’s services to film world, Tamil language and other issues that have entertainment in focus than uplift of people at large. Now that he is dead, there is no threat to his popularity. The rumblings of sibling rivalries are more apparent than real as his successor and the second son Stalin, born to his second wife, enjoys the solid support of the rank and file of a cadre- based party. Whether this loyalty of the party will help in getting votes for the leader sans mass base like his father is a moot point, the answer for which would be known only at the 2019 Lok Sabha polls when the party without the patriarch faces the litmus test for the first time in its long history.