Mainstream WeeklyWhat’s happening in Bengal, the way the Election Commission has not merely facilitated the loot of the Bengal polling but became an unabashed participant in this mayhem and dacoity throughout the state, doesn’t surprise me one bit frankly, as I wrote in my previous piece that even if the Trinamul Congress TMC) were to scrape through by sheer grit, this is no Election when the bulk of voters prima facie suspects in the eyes of the BJP, have been literally weeded out and disenfranchised.
But it is the results of Tamil Nadu which sent not just shock waves but a cold fear down my spine, of what long-term scheming and strategising Modi, Amit Shah are capable of to teach their critics and dissenters, and extend Hindu Rashtra even where the BJP had no chance in hell to win.
The rise of popular Tamil film star Joseph Vijay (also known as Thalapathy) and the defeat of the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhgam (DMK) at the hands of this relatively unknown political entity, Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) registered as a political party only recently in 2024, entering the electoral arena for the first time, reminds me of the rise and later on fall of Arvind Kejriwal and his Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). The Aam Aadmi Party was an offshoot of the India Against Corruption (IAC) movement launched in Delhi on the shoulders of that deserter Army truck driver Anna Hazare portrayed as the new avatar of Mahatma Gandhi, ostensibly to end corruption but actually to sabotage the Right To Information (RTI) brought in by Sonia Gandhi and her advisory council in the 10 years of UPA rule of Dr Manmohan Singh, by the Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh (RSS). It provided the political and financial support and spread to the IAC, running a free kitchen for days together at the Ramlila Grounds, where Anna sat on a dharna surrounded by power seekers like Kiran Bedi, Arvind Kejriwal, Kumar Vishwas and many others. Though many genuine concerned citizens and activists like noted lawyer Prashant Bhushan, TV anchor Ashutosh and political activist Yogendra Yadav or Devendra Sharma, also fell first for the IAC and later even remained associated with the AAP till Kejriwal weeded them out one by one.
Kejriwal, an Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer, was the find of one-time BJP/RSS thinker and an Advani loyalist, K.N. Govindacharya and was promoted through the Vivekananda International Foundation (VIF) of Ajit Doval as their answer to the "corrupt" and decadent Congress party in the run-up to the 2014 general elections. Remember, after decimating the Congress in the Delhi assembly, he contested against Modi in Benaras, apparently to blunt the Congress campaign against Modi. Then he turned his attention to Gujarat, then Goa and eventually Punjab in all those states where the Congress was the leading political force. Upcoming Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was denigrated by the Sanghis as ’Pappu’ and Kejriwal as the real alternative to the Congress, till he started taking himself seriously and actually became a threat to the BJP’s designs to conquer the entire India. That’s when the Modi dispensation used all the available institutions to destroy Kejriwal’s political career.
The same is being done to Mamata since she won the Bengal assembly elections for a third term in 2021. Mamata and her party occasionally played footsie with the BJP, starting with joining twice the cabinet of Atal Behari Vajpayee. Don’t forget how Vajpayee made her the Railway minister and flew all the way to Kolkata to touch Mamata’s mother’s feet. Later, even during Modi rule the TMC often stood away from the Opposition on many occasions, subverting Opposition unity on every crucial issue challenging Modi/Amit Shah. But yes, she had become an obstacle to the Sangh’s long-term designs on Bengal and the country, and so she needed to be dumped now, to the extent of ensuring she herself lost the assembly polls.
Therefore, there are cogent reasons why the rise of Thalapathy Vijay reminds me of the rise of Kejriwal and Mamata, though he is not the first film star to touch dizzy political heights. M.G. Ramchandran (MGR) was a swashbuckling Tamil film star who broke away from the parent DMK to found the rival All India Anna DMK (AIADMK) with Indira Gandhi’s support and remained Tamil Nadu chief minister for a decade till his death— 1977-1987. His political heir J. Jayalalitha who was sworn in as Tamil Nadu chief minister four times from 1991, died in December 2016 of illness, was also a film star who enjoyed tremendous popularity among cine goers across southern states, having acted in Telugu and Kannada films as well, apart from her main medium of Tamil films with MGR. In fact, Karunanidhi too was associated for long with the Tamil film industry as a story and script writer, for socially and politically relevant Tamil films. But both had been in active politics for long years.
So was the next door N.T Rama Rao the Telugu film star who founded the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) in 1982, articulating the Telugu pride against Congress hegemony, contested the 1983 assembly elections, won a huge majority and became the chief minister of united Andhra Pradesh. But then again NTR had actively participated in social work ever since the November 1977, ’Pralaya’ cyclone which struck the coastal regions of Andhra Pradesh, affecting Diviseema in Krishna district. Shocked by the devastation, NTR mobilized support from the film industry and the general public to assist the victims of Diviseema. He appealed to people for donations, and the funds raised were used for the rehabilitation of the affected communities, reported the Wikipedia in his biography. He also actively supported for long women’s agitation against alcoholism.
But not all film actors from Tamil Nadu achieved the same success in politics. For instance, the most popular southern film star of our times Rajnikant also had political ambition and was approached by the BJP to launch a political party. He toyed with the idea for a while but was not convinced. Lately southern film star who made a big name in the Hindi film industry too, Kamal Haasan, too fiddled with the idea of joining politics. He too tried a weak hand and finally succumbed to the temptation of becoming a Rajya Sabha member with DMK support just a few months back.
Therefore, my point is how come this Jose Vijay, a political greenhorn, sprang on the political firmament like the North Star to the extent that a seasoned political leader and a committed anti-BJP Dravidian M.K. Stalin lost his election in the results declared on May 4. Was it just a fluke, a movie craze of Gen Z. Or was there something more sinister? A couple of things come to my mind in respect of three major states, Assam, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu. One that any leader who stood up to Modi has been decimated in these elections. Stalin, more than the other two, namely Mamta and Gaurav Gogoi, stood more steadfast against Modi’s hegemony. The EC saw to it that each one of them individually licked the dust in their pocket burrough, showing them Modi’s power and control of the institutions— the Election Commission being accessory to the crime and the higher judiciary simply refusing to take cognisance.
Stalin resisted Modi’s designs and refused to bend to Modi’s diktat first on Hindi, then the New Education Policy (NEP) and lastly to Modi’s delimitation of constituencies in the garb of women’s reservation. Modi’s problem was that Stalin ran a good, scandal-free government with high ratings on all human development indices. Besides, Tamilians by and large are still wary of the BJP. It entered the electoral arena as a junior alliance partner of the Anna DMK, contesting only 27 seats and eventually M. Bhojarajan alone won the Udhagamandalam Assembly segment by a slim margin of 976 votes, The Hindu reported.
Vijay whose party is still 10-11 short of a majority in the Tamil Nadu assembly, has approached both the Anna DMK and the Congress and Left as well for support. It seems the Congress is tempted by the offer. Except that the Congress has put the precondition not to extend support if the TVK were to align with the BJP or a BJP ally (read AIADMK). That’s a tough decision to make because whereas the non-BJP smaller parties including the Congress can barely muster 10-11 seats, the AIADMK has 47 members and can ensure a stable government led by Thalapathy Vijay.
But were Vijay to agree to such a Congress/Left condition one, such a government would be pretty shaky and unstable. Besides the desertion of DMK will send a very bad signal down the line to the Tamilians, since the Congress and Left have been riding piggy back the DMK for two decades, since on their own they are incapable to open an account in Tamil Nadu.
Post script: The latest news is that the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee has broken its alliance with the DMK to shake hands with this Vijay with the approval and support of Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi. This backstabbing by the Congress at a crucial juncture when Stalin most needed the support of INDIA Bloc partners is nothing short of Hara Kiri and shameful. Besides Rahul forgot that as Leader of Opposition he is supposed to represent and articulate the concerns of the entire Opposition or at least the INDIA alliance members. Even his own party members here in Delhi wonder how will the Congress stand with the DMK after this, opposing the delimitation being enforced by Modi.