Jayalalithaa Vs Karunanidhi and Tamil Nationalism

The General Secretary of AIADMK, Jayalalithaa has announced that she will fight the Parliamentary elections without the help of the National Parties Congress and BJP. There appears to be a well planned strategy by AIADMK when compared to DMK. The alliance arithmetic of DMK show the weakness and desperation. The “go it alone” path chosen by Jayalalithaa shows the confidence levels of AIADMK. We see a role reversal among the two main players if we look into the political history of Tamil nadu. An analysis on these leader centric parties in a state of Hero worship may catch up with the public mood. But a journalistic journey of predictions and imaginations mixed with ground situation may end up only in just another episode of interesting reading.

KARUNANIDHI

The DMK president Karunanidhi is sitting inside the ruins of the collapsed Dravidian palace. The internal squabbles among the sons on succession remind us the history of past kingdoms. The political wing of the Dravidian movement is now under the cloud of scam and corruption charges and is not able to fly.

What a great start and what sort of unceremonious downfall!

The Dravidian movement was established by E.V.Ramasamy Naicker, fondly called as Periyar. Anti Brahmin platform, Anti Hindi protests, Anti God Propaganda marked the initial phases of the Dravidian movement. Social reforms, eradication of religious superstition, eradication of caste, social justice, rights for women, education for all , state autonomy are the positive outcome of this movement.

The DMK Chief may be the last legend of the great Dravidian empire on decline. He is stripped of all his weapons and is standing without agenda.

Mr. Karunanidhi who wrote many scripts for films was known well for his opposition to Hindu ceremonies and rituals in temples. Now he is expressing his displeasure for demolition of Hindu temples in Sri Lanka. Neither the Hindu devotees nor the Tamil activists are going to take it. Enough lip and pen services have been rendered by Karunanidhi. The result is a big zero.

Mr. Karunanidhi who claims getting classical language status to Tamil believes that it is a great achievement. But his passive sleep when a full fledged genocidal war was let loose on innocent Tamils in Sri Lanka will never be forgotten or forgiven. What is the use of sharing power in Central Government if he can do nothing to save Tamils. Only Tamils need a protector. Not the Tamil language. The language has survived adverse conditions severe than what is obtained now.

Ever since the DMK started to participate in central Government there were some economic benefits to Tamil nadu which were just left over after feeding Congress ruled states. But the Dravidian movement compromised its ideals for the sake of power in Delhi especially for its first and second family.

DMK has faced splits with the birth of AIADMK and MDMK and the movement has been reduced structurally and institutionally.

Now Mr. Karunanidhi is harvesting insults from a popular magazine regarding Kushboo, the actress who is caught between two groups in DMK.

JAYALALITHAA

The AIADMK was founded by MGR by branching off from DMK. He also claimed that he was running Dravidian Party with the same ideals. But when he was sick he turned towards Mookambika temple. For those Brahmin and forward caste people who were alienated from the political mainstream of Tamil nadu politics MGR was a ray of hope. His Successor J.Jayalalithaa is shining like a rising sun for those who oppose Dravidian movement. The significant point is that J.Jayalalithaa is a Brahmin. Such evolution is inevitable considering wrong strategies adopted by Karunanidhi in leading Dravidian movement with its core ideals. Jayalalithaa supports temples and follows soft Hindutwa and she is friendly with Narendra Modi, the hard Hindutwa leader.

Jayalalithaa who took over reins from MGR as his political heir initially took anti Ealem stand. But at this juncture she is the hope for the Tamil activists who sympathise with the suffering Ealem Tamils. They supported her in the last election in which she won comfortable and DMK was forced to go as a third party.

Today she is taking up the issues of Power supply to Tamil nadu, Cauvery water dispute, Mmullaip Periyar dispute in her own style and is asking the people to hand over forty out of forty Parliament seats to AIADMK. She is asking for getting justice done for Tamil nadu. She no more repose faith on National parties. She has rightfully understood that only a strong and bullying ally can get the things done for the state. This is because the National parties try to satisfy both states in the case of inter state disputes. She has already demonstrated her strength which A.B.Vajpayee could not forget.

TAMIL NATIONALISM REDEFINED

What happened in the past decades? Is it a situation wherein Dravidian leader supporting Aryan rule at Delhi? The Aryan leader taking up Dravidian cause? Everything about Dravidian movement has become meaningless.Running a Dravidian movement is not purposeful anymore. It fails to deliver and is going towards a natural death.

More political parties for each caste have cropped up. More and more religious rituals, fraudulent god men are growing eating in to the savings of Tamil people. Anti Tamil forces have won Ealem war. Hindi is no more an issue in Tamil nadu. Brahmin domination is out dated. The DMK has lost the direction of “ Duty, Dignity & Discipline” set by its founder Anna.

S.P.Udayakumar

We need no Dravidian movement. We need only a Tamil movement oriented towards safeguarding interests of Tamils in Tamil nadu, rest of India and the rest of the world. A Tamil movement should save the lives of Tamils first, work for their economic uplift and preserve the Tamil Language and Culture.

A clear cut definition for Tamil nationalism has been stated by Dr.S.P. Udhayakumar, the activist against Koodankulam Atomic Power Plant.

I do not understand how a question whether Periyar is a Tamil or Kannadiga will help us? If we have to accept only a Tamil as our leader, then what about Buddha, Jesus, Mohammed Nabi, Marks, Lenin, Gandhi and Ambedkar? At this juncture it is foolish idea to expect that a single Tamil leader shall appear and will hand over a single Tamil book to follow.

A question arises about Who is a Tamil?

Pakistani leader Abdul Wali Khan said ‘I am a Pakistani for 50 years, a Muslim for 500 years and a grand father for 5000 years’. Similarly we are Indians for the past 65 years only. But we are living as Tamils for 6000 years….

We should ponder whether purity of race is possible. Those tribals not connected with civilised world only can have purity of race. There is no guarantee that we are are all 100 percent Agmark Tamils. Others have ruled us ( for many centuries) No one can say what happened in everyone’s life ( in that period). We should not be entangled in the theory of Purity of race…

It is very important how to establish our identity. Neither it should be based on the aversion or anger against Malayalis or Sinhalese; Nor it should be based on ancient epics or glorious history or characteristics of culture. Should it not be based on today’s reality and tomorrow’s need? What should be the racial identity? Should it be a hardened fascist policy or a soft symbol of a group?…

Tamil Nationalism should try to (get and) possess the wealth of the world instead of (giving away by) globalising Tamil soil and its wealth… Tamil Nationalism is not chosen and given by a particular group or leader. Tamil nationalism shall allow to elect an individual as a leader on its own .
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