Actor Rajinikanth’s politics has only been about building rapport and ensuring safe ties with everybody. His network with other parties has been forged carefully and strategically. Even when he seemed to express strong views, he aligned with G K Moopanar and DMK, only to quickly adapt to the next person or party in power.
In 1996, when the Cauvery protests were at their peak, everyone including J Jayalalithaa showed solidarity and were on hunger strike. Rajini’s hunger strike at that point was nothing extraordinary.
His approach to power — and people who have it — has always been to protect his interests, and he made sure he found himself in a favoured state. That’s what happened during the Cauvery protests too.
When people said that he should take up politics, they were merely entertaining an idea. But he was busy looking into his career and acting opportunities.
Now that he’s old, he wants to walk a different road. But he still has not let go of his cinema market and strategies. He was part of the corporate advertising model that launched the special Kabaali flight. His values are closely lined with that of BJP. The way Moopanar was an influence in 1996, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is an influence in his entry into politics now. Rajini has been expressive about his Hindutva values and alignment with the Centre’s strategies.
He went on to speak about spiritual politics. When he acted in Baba, he thought he was expressing his political will — the concept of spiritual politics was supposed to be part of it. The movie was, however, about him , heightening his image as a superhero with spiritual and moral references being thrown around in parts. Kabaali on the other hand, was a little more clever and spoke about social injustice. But he could not get rid of his superhero image.
Rajini merely comes across as a soft Hindutva man, a superhero, who is in a friendly and favourable position to pave way for BJP to enter Tamil Nadu politics. That is exactly what the Centre wants from him too.
Also, Rajini is cautious. He has decided to skip the local body elections and contest only in the State Assembly elections. It means he will have a small party by 2020. He would have tested himself by then. But we never know when he’ll switch to BJP. He perhaps thinks his pact with the nation’s ruling party would be invisible, when he simply will be acting as BJP’s frontman in Tamil Nadu. He will be the petty shopkeeper until the winds are favourable for BJP to enter Tamil Nadu.
He is exploiting the latent backing from the Centre, the strength of his fan clubs and the fact that his funds and resources for the party have not been declared. When people start questioning him about where his funds are coming from, he’ll have to be transparent.
Rajini will soon face something that he has never faced before: political criticism. Rajini, as an actor, cut across political parties, religion, caste and class. But now, he’s politically answerable to criticism. He cannot survive on moral solutions alone, the way he did in his 2018 New year’s speech. Most of the points he spoke about can be debated. What does he mean by spiritual politics? What does anti-communalism mean? Many people call BJP as communal, so is he anti-BJP? Or is he against Christians and Muslims playing politics? When he says anti-corruption, what does he stand against? When he says that he is tired of Dravidian politics, is he referring only to politics of Tamil identity, or is he also dismissing the deep rooted idea of social justice, secularism and common rights?
Rajini has never expressed a firm view on demonetisation, GST or other issues pertinent to Tamil Nadu. Does he have a firm stand on religious killings or the massacre of Tamils in Sri Lanka during the Eelam War?
His words are slippery and he hasn’t taken a stand on substantive issues. In the past, he said that god will call him into politics. I don’t know which god called him now. He can rise above caste and religion as a film star, but to cut across these virtual borders in politics, he needs to demonstrate the same in his political manifesto. MGR’s charisma was beyond political boundaries because he worked to establish his political views.
I do not see the transformation of Rajini into a charismatic leader from a popular cinema actor. By mining his fan club, he could at most create a leak in the vote bank of other parties but he can’t take a significant portion away. When MGR started out, he was a targeted threat to DMK, but Rajini is not splitting any party. He is just taking his first baby step. He will have to channel members of his fan club who now vote for other political parties.
The State’s politics is at an all time low now. And AIADMK politics is laughable. Rajinikanth is not a solution to the State’s political situation, he is part of the problem.
People like him are taking away attention from the people doing actual work. Genuine alternatives are hidden in waves of commodities like him. Our politics has stooped so low that it’s reaching lower than the bottom.
The author is Professor and Head, Department of Politics and Public Administration, University of Madras