|
Name
calling match in Tamil Nadu
In
Tamil Nadu, the name calling match is on. Tamil Nadu Chief
Minister M. Karunanidhi has called Tamil National Movement
leader Pazha Nedumaran ‘traitor to his (Tamil) race’
and Nedumaran has recalled the instance when Karunanidhi ‘pulled
down’ a Tamil from becoming Indian Prime Minister.
Nedumaran opened the match with his political commentary published
last week when he commented on Karunanidi’s statement
that he would not attempt to be the chief minister for another
term. Nedumaran said even if Karunanidhi attempts to do so,
people will not permit him.
Angered, Karunanidhi hit back with his characteristic poem.
In that, he listed the several instances Nedumaran had betrayed
several leaders with whom he worked. He said that he first
betrayed the former Tamil Nadu Congress Chief Kamalraj. Nedumaran
fell out with him and formed a rival party. Then, Nedumaran
worked with the Dravida Munnetra Kazhalagam and its founder
leader C.N. Annadurai. He rebelled against him also and aligned
himself with another Congress leader Kumari Anandan.
He was with Kumari Anandan in 1983, when Black July riots
broke out in Sri Lanka. He declared that he would cross over
to Jaffna with his followers in boats and Kumari Anandan joined
him. Indian navy and police intercepted the flotilla of boats
in mid-sea and arrested Nedumaran and turned them back.
Karunanidhi referred to this incident in his poem and charged
that Nedumaran had deserted Kumari Anandan in mid-sea.
Then comes the punch lines in Karunanidhi’s verse. A
rough translation of those lines:
‘Fleecing money from the Tiger group While stabbing
painlessly on their back’
A traitor to his race
Nedumaran hit back with a statement. He accused Karunanidhi
of betraying the Tamils. He said when Kamalraj was emerging
as a leader of the Congress at the national level Karunanidhi
led a campaign against him. When Kamalraj contested a by-election
at Viruthunagar, Karunanidhi campaigned against him by using
his nadir caste as a weapon against him.
He accused him of undercutting V.R. Nedunchelian whom Annadurai
hand picked as his successor. Then he ousted M.G. Ramachandran
by plotting against him and capturing the DMK leadership through
betraying Annadurai’s desire.
Then he related the incident when Karunanidhi joined the anti-Tamil
camp of Karnataka’s leader Deva Gowda and pulled down
Moopanar, a Tamil leader, from becoming the Indian Prime Minister.
At that time, the contest for Indian Prime Minister was between
Moopanar and Deva Gowda. Karunanidhi backed Deva Gowda and
he was elected the Prime Minister.
Nedumaran, who heads the successful pro-LTTE campaign in Tamil
Nadu, has now turned his attack on Karunanidhi. The pro-LTTE
campaigners are telling the Tamil people, whose mood has changed
in favour of the LTTE, as reflected by the results of the
survey published by Ananda Vikatan in its August 8 issue,
that Karunanidhi who calls himself the leader of the Tamil
people of the world is actually betraying the Tamil people
by backing the Delhi Sri Lanka policy.
The communists and the main opposition BJP have joined the
anti-Karunanidhi bandwagon. They have launched a massive campaign
making use of the Wanni situation. They are highlighting the
plight of the displaced Tamil people in Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu.
Tamil press is printing tales of suffering and woe of the
people of Wanni. Photographs of people living under trees
and accounts of starving children and mothers are being published.
Sympathy wave is building up.
Vijaya D. Rajendar, a film actor and powerful orator, last
week raised the cry: If we cannot help the suffering Tamils
what is the use of calling ourselves Tamils?”
Politically and emotionally, Karunanidhi had been pushed into
a corner. His personal attack on Nedumaran is the result of
this. He fears that his scheme to bequeath the chief ministership
to his son Stalin would be threatened. Karunanidhi ascended
power two years ago with the help of his coalition partners
- Congress, Communists and Paddali People’s Party of
Dr. Ramdoss.
The situation has drastically changed. He expelled Paddali
People’s Party six months ago because it started attacking
his stand on the Sri Lankan Tamil problem. Then he relied
on the support of the Communists. Communists have withdrawn
their support following the dispute they had with the Congress
and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh over the civil nuclear agreement
with US, Karunanidhi government had been reduced to a minority.
Now, he is sending messages to Ramdoss inviting his party
back. For Ramdoss to return, Karunanidhi has to press Delhi
to alter its Sri Lanka policy.
To bolster his eroding support base, Karunanidhi announced
on Monday the populist measure of issuing a kilo of rice for
one rupee for the 11 lakhs of ration card holders, the poorer
sector of Tamil Nadu. The Chennai government will lose four
billion Indian rupees as subsidy. In Sri Lankan currency,
a kilo of rice will cost three rupees and the loss suffered
by the government 12 billion rupees.
Karunanidhi hopes to retain his support base through ‘one
kilo of rice for one rupee’ scheme. It was a scheme Annadurai
promised the poor people of Tamil Nadu in 1967, when he defeated
the Congress and formed the DMK government for the first time
in Tamil Nadu history.
Karunanidhi’s scheme has come under criticism by the
pro-LTTE lobby in Tamil Nadu. Dr. Ramdoss whom Karunanidhi
is trying to rope in had been one of the first to criticise
it. He said, “Improving the purchasing power of the poor
is beneficial in the long run than these short cuts to popularity.”
Karunanidhi’s ‘gimmick’ will fail, analysts
say, if (a) the plight of the displaced in Wanni worsens and
(b) if the LTTE stages a ‘heroic feat.’ The Trincomalee
bombing was one such heroic feat. It had bolstered the sagging
morale of the Tamil people, especially the Tamil expatriates.
|
