No end in sight to turbulence in TN politics -Governance Now

No end in sight to turbulence in TN politics

Looks like DMK is not prepared for taking on the government, says a professor

Shivani Chaturvedi | September 12, 2017 | Chennai

#AIADMK #DMK #Rajinikant #Tamil Nadu #MK Stalin #BJP

DMK president MK Stalin

No party seems to be prepared to end the prolonged political crisis that Tamil Nadu has been facing for the past nine months, feel analysts.

The main opposition DMK is not adequately responding to the situation. So, what is stopping them from seizing the opportunity?

Professor Ramu Manivannan, head of the department of politics and public administration, Madras university, says, “The DMK seems to have two reservations. One is that the party members who got elected in the last election don’t want to risk losing another four years. The other factor is that the top man is not active anymore. They feel once they take a big step like bringing down the government or going towards a change, then they must have everything in place.”

“As of now DMK is not prepared. MK Stalin considers himself to be a man in waiting. But he may have to just wait unless he pre-empts. So that kind of deliberation is still not demonstrated. Looks like DMK is not prepared for taking on the government,” the professor assessed.

He says that the BJP wants to untie the knot in Tamil Nadu politics. First, it wants to completely break up the AIADMK into factions and smaller factions and then be with whichever faction is influential. But they still need the AIADMK brand. Second, they want a mass face. They have been working on Rajinikanth for a long time and looks like even the superstar is ready for it now. He wants to float a party, which he had hinted, and the party might even affiliate with BJP at an election time. There might be a combination of BJP, Rajinikanth and OPS going to the polls.

Sources say, the state BJP unit does not want to be in the middle of the chaos in Tamil Nadu. They think it is too difficult for them to manage, though they want to work closely with the government. This happened with Congress also and some feel it is typical Tamil Nadu politics.

The state government is busy among themselves. Even the centenary of MG Ramachandran (MGR) was used for making and breaking the party.

Manivannan adds, Tamil Nadu is going through leadership transition. BJP is a prime mover of the government in Tamil Nadu. BJP feels they are under attack. They want to play the game as they know it is now or never. One thing is for sure that they “cannot run the party as DMK or AIADMK can be run because the national BJP does not understand how the Dravidian parties run the system”.

The two Dravidian parties work with people and in social movements, anti-caste movements and social justice movements. But somehow BJP here feels that these issues are outdated and do not matter. However, the local issues do impact the voters. BJP as of now doesn’t know where to begin with this kind of politics in the state, says the professor.

This is the right time for BJP to set up its presence in the state but public would accept the party provided it speaks the issues affecting the people. BJP state leadership should at least represent state issues. “How many BJP leaders go to the places of protests such as farmers’ suicide, or protests by villagers at Neduvasal against hydrocarbon extraction? Why such places must be visited only by Dravidian parties or by people’s movement?” asks a political commentator.

Observers say AIADMK would dissolve and the process is already on. The immediate beneficiary is DMK, provided they are able to seize the opportunity.

Comments

Other News

Global South: Health cooperation needs institutions to make solutions scalable

September 12 marks the International Day for South-South Cooperation, commemorating the 1978 Buenos Aires Plan of Action (BAPA). Forty-eight years later, its central proposition remains relevant: countries of the Global South can draw on their own knowledge, experience and innovations to address shared d

Reading the mind of Xi Jinping

As India prepares to host the 18th BRICS Summit this weekend, and as prime minister Narendra Modi is set to hold a bilateral meet with president Xi Jinping, China’s growing global influence and the changing dynamics of India-China relations will be under focus. But to understand where China is head

BRICS at 20: From economic weight to global influence

This year marks 20 years of BRICS, with India set to host the grouping’s leaders’ summit this weekend. The anniversary offers an opportune moment to assess BRICS’ growing importance at a time when the effectiveness of global governance and the credibility of multilateralism are under in

Former president Ram Nath Kovind on some of his unforgettable journeys

Triumph of the Indian Republic: My Life, My Struggles By Ram Nath Kovind Rupa Publications, 400 pages, Rs 795 All our presidents so far stand out, each for a different reason. Ram Nath Kovind, the 14th president of India, from 2017 t

Uday Kotak on history, Indian economy, growth and more

Pathbreakers: How 10 Visionary Leaders Transformed India by award-winning journalists By Sucheta Dalal and Debashis Basu Rupa Publications, 304 pages, Rs 695

₹5,000 crore saved from suspected financial fraud

In a significant gain for citizen protection in the digital economy, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has helped prevent suspected cyber fraud losses of more than ₹5,000 crore through its Financial Fraud Risk Indicator (FRI) within fifteen months of its launch on May 22, 2025. This money did