The recent assembly elections in Tamil Nadu served to exemplify a major revelation in the fight between two competing trends in politics across the world— the desire for change on one hand, and the continuity of the party in power on the other, interpreted generally as the “pro or anti-incumbency” factor.
Although there were no strong indications of these factors in the Tamil Nadu assembly elections, the dominant narratives that underlined party campaigns conveyed a different message and operational realities. While the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) carried out a popular campaign to let party chief and chief minister MK Stalin continue in his position. The party and its leadership maintained the role and relevance of idealogy as a driving factor in the state’s factor, aside another influential narrative that focussed on the Centre-state relationship.
The National Democratic Alliance’s (NDA) campaign— exemplified mainly by the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)— highlighted the anti-incumbency factor, pushing for a resounding defeat of the DMK.
The wild card campaign led by actor-politician Vijay’s Tamizhaga Vetri Kazhagam (TVK) advocated for a larger, sweeping change, appealing for an end to the DMK’s alleged tendency towards dynastic politics, besides drawing a considerable vote share from the AIADMK and Naam Thamizhar Katchi (NTK), led by Seeman.
The outcome, which will become clear on May 4, is likely to reveal both the depth and shortcomings if this desire for change expressed by the oppposition parties, as well as the strength of the DMK’s quest for continuity.
{{/usCountry}}The outcome, which will become clear on May 4, is likely to reveal both the depth and shortcomings if this desire for change expressed by the oppposition parties, as well as the strength of the DMK’s quest for continuity.
{{/usCountry}}The elections also exposed the chaos, confusion and lack of civic education afflicting a sizable portion of young people in Tamil Nadu. The desire for change, especially among the youth, is not an unusual possibility. But to imagine a transition without ideological orientation, lack of development priorities or awareness of federal issues, as well as the cinema cult following among a large section of the “Generation Z”, as demonstrated amply in public, are new and dangerous phenomena in Tamil Nadu politics.
In addition, the deep malaise and decay within the state’s political culture and party system was also on display in the run-up to polling day. It was not difficult to notice the lack of understanding rooted in scientific outlook towards politics, superseded by an exuberant and enthusiastic assumption that the leader would deliver.
This is an unprecedented phenomena— which, in recent decades, used to be explained as the inextricable link between cinema and politics in Tamil Nadu. However, there is something more than simply the impact of cinema on politics that warrants a closer look, in terms of the emergence of a “cult culture” and the traces of a “psychopathic” society which does not want to think and act.
The nexus between cinema and politics in the state has existed since the early 1960s, given the role and influence wielded by the likes of CN Annadurai (Anna), Karunanidhi Muthuvel, and MG Ramachandran. The DMK’s 1972 split and the subsequent establishment and rise of Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (ADMK) furthered popular cinema’s access and spillover into the political system.
Though DMK continued to maintain the ideological base of the Dravidian movement as core party and political agenda over subsequent decades, it has, however, failed to foster political education among the youth.
Above all, the Dravidian parties failed to encourage student politics and elections across the state because of their own fearful perception of students’ movements shaping up to become challenges to their pre-eminence in state politics.
Student politics in Tamil Nadu has thus suffered a major erosion in the last five to six decades. The emergence of the “cinema cult”, coupled with the youth’s gradual depoliticisation are part of the current reality of Dravidian political culture’s conscious attempt to keep the youth out of political debates. The result is the degenerated cinema cult culture and the traces of psychopathic society, at a level that was unimaginable even during the height of the “image trap” built around the MGR phenomenon.
As a part of this development— two interesting phenomena have risen in Tamil Nadu’s politics and society, notwithstanding the visible discomfort they serve the traditional Dravidian heavyweights, like the DMK and AIADMK, who are both resistant to the emerging trend, but fail to check the drifting currents of politics.
Meanwhile, the national parties— the BJP and the Indian National Congress (INC)— are closely monitoring the shifts on the ground. The BJP has gone a few steps ahead to test the “Vijay factor” through tacit understanding and networking with its allies on the ground, which in turn, has alerted traditional Dravidian parties to the prospect of BJP’s breakthrough into state politics through an intermediary, with unlikely circumstances such as the hung assembly memories of Maharashtra.
As of now, the electronic voting machines (EVMs) locked away in strongrooms across the state are the centre of a debate that incorporates both rumour and observation. All that is left is to wait and see.
Prof.Ramu Manivannan is a Political Scientist – Scholar-Activist in areas of education, human rights and sustainable development. He is currently the Director, Multiversity – Centre for Indigenous Knowledge Systems, Kurumbapalayam Village, Vellore District, Tamil Nadu.