The DMK’s first family seems to be preparing for a vertical split with chief M Karunanidhi and king in waiting M K Stalin on one side and the disgruntled son, pasha of Madurai M K Alagiri on the other. The conflict has spread down party cadre with a poster war in full swing on the streets of Chennai. Isolation of Alagiri was further deepened when several party loyalists last week decided to give his birthday a miss. However, Karunanidhi tried doing some damage control when he dismissed the hand of his sons Alagiri and Stalin behind the cryptic wall posters that caused a furore inside the party.
The writing on the wall is clear: Union Minister M K Alagiri’s supporters want to take swipes at Karunanidhi and Stalin, through at least four subtle and intriguing messages on posters plastered on walls across the city.
Greeting Alagiri on his birthday, the posters with the Madurai strongman’s photograph have legends that read like conundrums, pregnant with hidden meanings, offering scope for a wide range of interpretations.
Are they taking potshots at Karunanidhi? Are they a warning to Stalin? Or both? Sources in the party told The Sunday Standard that the phrases in the posters are being viewed as a challenge to the recent decision to settle the DMK succession question. For, one set of posters read ‘Kannagiyin Silambum; Manoharanin Vilangum; Vizhinthatha? Vizhthiyatha?’ (Did the anklet of Kannagi and the fetters of Manohara fall or did they defeat {the enemy}?) For the two historic films from the black and white era—‘Manohara’ and ‘Poompuhar’, which had Kannagi as the lead character—Karunanidhi wrote the script and dialogues. In the films, the anklet and fetters are symbolic of the protagonists’ fight for justice. Manohara breaks free of his shackles and Kannagi uses her anklet to prove to a king that the killing of her husband for possessing an anklet was miscarriage of justice. So, are the supporters telling Karunanidhi that Alagiri will finally win as the ‘fetters’ and ‘anklet’ did not fall but triumphed?
One set of posters was rather more direct. ‘Muyalum vellum! Aamaiyum vellum! Mulalamai vellathu. Avasaram, chakarathai mudakiyathu! Brahmasthiram tholviadainthathu’ (Hare will win, tortoise will win, but making no effort won’t lead to victory. Haste has stalled the wheels, the super weapon has failed).
These poetic lines, obviously, refer to the naming of Stalin as next party chief as it mentions a ‘hasty decision’ that has put a spoke in the wheel. They also stress that one must keep making efforts as both the hare and tortoise can win the race. Another poster read ‘Athuku mela, Athuku mela, Annan yengal uiyuru’ (Above that, Above that, our elder brother is dear to us). It is said that it was this particular phraseology that earned the wrath of the party high command, which has threatened action against those behind it.
Does the ‘that’ mean Karunanidhi? Or does it refer to any decision taken by the DMK? It is left to the imagination of the people, who cannot miss the posters put up on walls in almost every prime locality, particularly where Karunanidhi’s two houses are situated.
Though a senior party functionary in Chennai told The Sunday Standard that the person who pasted the posters was someone close to a former Madurai Deputy Mayor, it is not clear who exactly scripted those lines or printed them.
The third poster that said ‘you are neither Paramasivam nor we Garuda’ is a take off from an old Tamil film song that refers to a snake coiled around Lord Shiva’s neck asking a ‘garuda’ (eagle) if he was alright. The snake replies that everything is OK as long as everything is in the right place (it can be read as the snake being told that it is safe only when it is around Shiva’s neck).
With the obvious inference being that the legend in the poster means that neither is Karunanidhi Shiva and nor are they (those behind the posters) eagles. So, does that mean that the snake will be preyed upon even if it is in the present location? Whatever they are supposed to mean, the posters have created a flutter in DMK circles. But a source close to the Madurai strongman disowned the posters. Speaking to reporters, Karunanishi indicated that the posters could be the handiwork of forces opposed to the welfare of the party. “I certainly believe that my sons could not be the reason behind it,” the patriarch declared.
However, posters and Alagiri’s birthdays share a history. Every year, Madurai walls are plastered with those praising Alagiri, mainly with the sobriquet ‘Anjanenjan’ (Braveheart). This year, however, the posters have travelled to Chennai bearing a different message.
The Sunday Standard