The same old story plays out in Tamil Nadu….
Hate politics, especially objectionable comments made against the Hindu faith, is an exercise which has been a regular feature of Dravidian politics over many decades in Tamil Nadu. Vulgar, euphemistic language leaving no scope for imagination has repeatedly been used on public platforms with a calculated design to demean opponents and hurting their self-esteem. The sad part is that over time, the public of the State, including its women, seem to have got desensitized to such bilge. One can say for sure it is a trademark which is wholly owned by the oldest regional party of south India, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK).
Added to this is the ever-present trail of corruption and unbridled misuse of power which has cropped up almost all the time whenever the party has been in power. The recent cases of Senthil Balaji and K Ponmudi, the ministers who have been censured by the highest courts of the land are one of the much-debated ones in recent times.
With a year to go for polls, a reviving opposition party AIADMK attempting to shed its inertia and hoping to turn the tables with the support of the BJP, the DMK has stumbled on, moving from one year to the other, continuing its cat fights with the Governor, R N Ravi and shooting its arrows at the Centre for its 'step-motherly' treatment.
Unable to play its own tune against the harsh and sobering judgment of the High Court, the party had to bow down to the judicial pronouncement and seek the scalp of Ponmudi, who embarrassed the DMK no end with his comments on the two sects of Hindu religion and demeaning women too in the process.
A so-called secular ambience prevails in this state, hailed as the gateway to the South not too long ago. Which very evidently means, an excessive and unjustified attack on the majority community, putting the believers and their faith under the microscope, using half-baked and repulsive language to ridicule them.
Like how all cadre-based parties have had to combat the changing times and ideological positions challenged by real politics on the field, the DMK too has had to battle rising desertions from its fold but had built a solid base for itself over time to keep itself afloat. It also helped that there was no other real opposition from the national parties, who were forced to piggyback on either of the two regional parties for their existence and presence at both the state and national level.
Having based their political existence on the twin theories of 'social justice' and 'rationalism', the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, which is a splinter of the mother party, Dravida Kazhagam is now a pale shadow of what it was when it ascended to power for the first time in 1967.
The old guard has by and large receded with a few exceptions and the leaders who synced with the new dispensation of Stalin and his family are the only ones who find themselves in slots cherry picked for them.
With the other out of power minister, Senthil Balaji who carried a parallel rule within the government and allegedly out beat many of his colleagues in aggregating corruption charges now given the task of party work, the DMK seems confident of brazening it out using its familiar cocktail of fomenting casteism and poking it in the eye as far as the Hindu faith is concerned.
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