CHENNAI: Remember whistle podu, the famous catch phrase of Chennai Super Kings captain M S Dhoni during the last edition of the IPL? A small group of IT professionals perhaps have taken a leaf out of his book. Their call: “Save Tamil Nadu, Vote for Whistle.”
Candidates of the Makkal Sakthi Katchi (MSK) — the state wing of the Lok Satta Party (LSP) - Whistle is their poll symbol. They want people to turn whistle-blowers against corruption.
The LSP was founded by former bureaucrat from Hyderabad Dr Jayaprakash Narayan in 2006, 10 years after it became a movement for electoral reforms and integrity.
In all, MSK has fielded 36 candidates, not all of whom are techies. Yet, the one common string that binds them together is their propensity towards social activism. They would contest from seats in 18 different districts, including Chennai, Coimbatore, Salem and Cuddalore.
Ashok Rajendran, the party candidate from Mylapore, is all of 27 years, the youngest of them all. A software developer at CISCO company, Chennai, he promised that education and health were his primary goals, apart from the main agenda of rooting out corruption.
He said, “I have always been part of social work - from charity at a small scale to working in small NGOs. Then I got involved with RTI activism and finally, got into the Fifth Pillar, a Chennai based anti-corruption organisation. This is when I realised that doing charity and social work will help but in small ways. But none can replace the work by an honest government. Being in politics, one can bring change in by good governance. This pushed me into active politics.”
“We will be different,” he promised and explained that irrespective of the win or loss, the party would have a “shadow government”. In other words, each member of the party would be given different portfolios, like health, education and finance, and they would have to the unwrap corrupt practices.
Since last week, he has met over 2,000 voters during the door-to-door campaign, distributing zero rupee notes with the slogan, “Vote against corruption; vote for change, not for for money.”
“There is a tsunami of freebies with mega scams and family rule being the order of the day. Given a chance, we will bring in a new political culture, free of muscle and money power,” said Senthil Arumugam, an ex-IT professional contesting from Velachery.
Explained Vijay Anand, State Steering Committee member of MSK, “None of us have spent more than a lakh individually for the campaign so that the party is not hijacked by that one person who dominates with the money power. The funds we have mobilized for campaigning is through support from family and friends. Since many of them are software professionals, there is a huge backing by the IT professionals from abroad, and in TN.”
Now beat this: All 36 candidates claim to be teetotallers, with a policy against mushrooming TASMAC shops. “The government can’t be into the business of selling liquor,” said Rajendran.