CHENNAI: Haunted by his political irrelevance, MDMK leader Vaiko is increasingly becoming a rebel with a cause without conviction. With the BJP, under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, taking the wind out of the sail of pro-Tamil parties, by hijacking their political plank, leaders like him have been exposed of their feet of clay. The prospect of being relegated to the fringes despite a long innings is what stares him in the face.
The party’s electoral rout in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls has dashed his hopes of a political resurrection and the distraught Vaiko is now singing a different tune. Painting Modi as the villain of Tamils, he is attempting to promote himself as the new face of an emerging brand of Tamil nationalism in the post-LTTE phase. Clueless as he is, his eulogy of Modi during the poll campaign has now turned into caustic criticism, inviting scorn from the local BJP. Vaiko had recently criticised Modi for greeting Sri Lankan President Rajapaksa at the recent SAARC summit in Nepal. BJP national secretary H Raja then hit out at Vaiko for his remarks against the prime minister saying they would not tolerate continuous attacks on Modi.
The stridency of his rhetoric is in quite contrast to his dwindling support base. In the last Lok Sabha poll, the party’s vote share was a meager 3.5 per cent, even though it was part of the eight-party Saffron alliance. As such, it is doubtful whether his current political maneuvering will achieve him anything more than filling up a bit of media space. Now, he is hogging the limelight for rocking the Saffron alliance in Tamil Nadu, paving the way for his eventual exit.
After being shunted out of the AIADMK alliance in the 2011 Assembly elections and left in the lurch, the MDMK was forced to opt out of the contest. Then, for the LS polls it entered the NDA with great hopes of reversing the party’s sagging electoral fortunes. But the party drew a blank and he lost from Virudhunagar despite Modi telling the electorate during the campaign that they were electing a Union Minister in Vaiko. When allies of the BJP who have won seats could not do anything, the plight of those who could not make it to the Parliament is indeed understandable. Now, Vaiko’s game plan is to latch on to the pro-Tamil politics by painting Modi in black.
In attempting to shame the Modi government, he invites more on himself and becomes an object of ridicule. “For, Modi has not changed either before the polls or afterwards and the BJP appears to gain more space given the fluid political situation here. Vaiko can’t be a comfortable co-traveler of the Saffron alliance. He can’t be an ally and a critic as both won’t work. Hence, he tries to build his image as a radical crusader of a new emerging brand of Tamil nationalism,” says R Thirunavukkarasu, teaching sociology at the University of Hyderabad. This comes into conflict with the BJP appropriating the plank of the Pro-Tamil parties. “The recent release of five fishermen on death row from Sri Lanka and elevating Thiruvalluvar of the Sangam era and modernist Tamil poet Bharathi to the national pantheon as well as other measures have apparently enabled the BJP to expand its base,” he said, adding this has squeezed the political space for the likes of Vaiko.
All along, the MDMK has managed to keep itself afloat by switching alliances during elections, dictated by the quest for survival than any ideological conviction. Vaiko has been surviving like the proverbial fly, feeding on the dominant partner. Deserting the NDA in 2004, he was with the Congress-led UPA only to return to the saffron fold in 2014.
Unlike in the past, Vaiko now is a loner with almost all the DMK bigwigs who followed him when the MDMK was launched having deserted the party. Adding to his discomfiture is the progressively shrinking support base of the MDMK. Yet, he continues to delude himself as the face of the new Tamil nationalsim and believes there is a constituency looking up to him. Where has this led him? He tops the list of those holding demonstrations before the Sri Lankan High Commission, a habit for the politically under-employed and unemployed fringe outfits with no electoral relevance.