Stalin, Palaniswami chart new path with healthy political ties

Chennai: Edapaddi Palaniswami and MK Stalin are charting a refreshing and respectful political rivalry in a state that has witnessed bitterness, animosity and violence for more than 50 years between their Dravidian predecessors

Chennai: Edapaddi Palaniswami and MK Stalin are charting a refreshing and respectful political rivalry in a state that has witnessed bitterness, animosity and violence for more than 50 years between their Dravidian predecessors.

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After the May 2 results ended the AIADMK’s 10-year rule and brought back the DMK, Palaniswami graciously accepted defeat and wished Stalin on Twitter, the platform for new-age politics. Stalin reciprocated by seeking Palaniswami’s ideas and cooperation. “Democracy is a fusion of both ruling and opposition parties,” Stalin said. This was unheard of during previous regime changes in Tamil Nadu.

A prime factor is that the two new leaders have no personal animosity unlike the history of rivalry between DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi and MG Ramachandran (MGR), and later J Jayalalithaa.

It began when the matinee idol and popular leader MGR split from the DMK in 1972 and founded the ADMK (later renamed AIADMK) ending the MGR- Karunanidhi friendship and successful partnership in films and politics. MGR won the first election in 1977 after launching his party and continued to remain chief minister until his death in 1987. “Their personal vengeance gave rise to politics of hatred in Tamil Nadu,” says former journalist Durai Karunanidhi. “Both of them wanted to abolish each other’s parties. DMK foisted false cases against MGR and after he came to power, MGR managed to keep a Chanakya-like Karunanidhi away from electoral victory until his death. Yet, they were on speaking terms; they would participate in common public events.”

MGR and Karunanidhi had together attended the wedding of Tamilisai Soundararajan, the daughter of Congress veteran Kumari Ananthan. She is now a BJP leader and governor of Telangana and lieutenant governor of Puducherry. Videos from her wedding show MGR, who was then chief minister, and Karunanidhi sitting together, speaking and laughing.

After MGR’s death, Jayalalithaa took over the reins, became the state’s opposition leader, as Karunanidhi returned as chief minister in the 1989 elections. Jayalalithaa inherited the rivalry, which increased after an infamous incident in the assembly when the DMK was two months into its third term. Violence broke out between the two parties and DMK’s present organising secretary Durai Murugan is accused of hitting Jayalalithaa and she came out of the assembly weeping and dishevelled. In 2001, in less than a month after Jayalalithaa became chief minister, a then 78-year-old Karunanidhi was arrested over corruption charges. In a midnight drama, police woke him up at 1.45am, roughed him up and took him into custody, all the while with Karunanidhi shouting, ‘kolapandranga’ meaning “they are killing me”.

“He spent a week in prison, that’s all Jayalalithaa wanted. She didn’t pursue the case,” says DMK veteran and MP TKS Elangovan. Karunanidhi and Jayalalithaa never saw eye-to-eye and avoided assembly proceedings with each other. “Jayalalithaa has expelled AIADMK cadre when she heard reports of them speaking to DMK cadre,” said Durai.

Elangovan narrates that though AIADMK MPs and MLAs would speak to him when they were together in Delhi in parliament or outside, the same members wouldn’t dare to be seen with him in Chennai. “We would fly back from Delhi to Chennai together and chat together on-air but from the minute we land, they will stop speaking and won’t even walk next to me,” says Elangovan. “That’s how much they feared Jayalalithaa.”

The change perhaps started with Stalin who attended Jayalalithaa’s swearing-in in 2016 even as several DMK MLAs boycotted it. Karunanidhi complained that Jayalalithaa insulted his son in the seating arrangement as he was seated in the 16th row. The following day, Jayalalithaa clarified that it wasn’t intended and if she was informed of Stalin’s attendance, she would have relaxed norms and seated him in the front row.

The erstwhile hardened stances began to wither after Jayalalithaa’s death in December 2016 after she was re-elected for a second term earlier that year. After a long-drawn succession battle, Palaniswami became chief minister and helmed the AIADMK along with O Panneerselvam. “Though the ruling and opposition debated and criticised each other, they came out of the assembly speaking to each other similar to the Delhi culture and respectful politics began to peek in Tamil Nadu,” says Durai. It was beginning to bring back a healthy political culture that was seen even between former chief ministers-- Congress’s K Kamaraj and DMK founder CN Annadurai.

Palaniswami gave audience to a Stalin-led delegation in his chamber because they wanted to submit reformations -- a scene perhaps common in other states such as Kerala where ruling and opposition leaders travel and work together, but not in Tamil Nadu. Ministers led by Pannerselvam visited Karunanidhi’s residence when his health was deteriorating. It hit a rough spot when the AIADMK government cited new environment rules and denied permission for Karunanidhi, who didn’t die in office, to be buried alongside former chief ministers and his Dravidian mentors and rivals in Chennai’s Marina beach in August 2018. DMK went to court and the AIADMK allowed it after the Madras high court’s approval in a special late-night hearing. Palaniswami justified that it was the state’s inability due to policy. It was also a time when the Palaniswami-led government was seen as being subservient to the BJP at the Centre which Stalin has consistently criticised. “Stalin doesn’t seem to be the one to carry personal vengeances and Palaniswami and Panneerselvam are soft too,” said Durai.

Stain went to Palaniswami’s Chennai residence for his mother’s memorial service in October 2020 just before both leaders would begin a high-octane campaign mocking each other.

On Tuesday, a few DMK workers tore down banners of an ‘Amma canteen’ in Chennai, launched by Jayalalithaa in 2013 and replicated across the country to serve budget meals for the poor. “Our leader (Stalin) asked for the board to be fixed back; the two workers have been arrested and expelled from the party,” said M Subramanian, former Chennai mayor and newly elected MLA.

Such actions and their exchanges post campaigns even as they trade important places as chief minister and opposition leader indicates that the new-generation leaders are overturning decades of hate politics built on personal vengeance into a healthy atmosphere.

However, Stalin, in his election manifesto has stated that the DMK would form a special court to try corrupt ministers. He has submitted two complaints to governor Banwarilal Purohit against Palaniswami, Paneerselvam and other top ministers on graft charges. Stalin has also promised to speed up investigations into Jayalalithaa’s death. It remains to be seen how the DMK would pursue these two promises which would earn the wrath of the new opposition.