CHENNAI: It is official. DMK has dumped its rationalist pretensions for good. First, it was the women from the Karunanidhi clan on a pilgrimage-spree and now the men have been caught with religious fervour. Putting an end to the party’s ambivalence on atheism, the Dravidian major’s heir-apparent and wannabe chief minister M K Stalin has turned religious. Crossing the red line, he, accompanied by his wife, offered worship at the famed Vaishnavite temple in Thirukoshtiyur, one of the 108 divya desams associated with Sri Ramanujacharya.
This signals a major break from tradition since no top DMK leader had ever made public their faith and belief, since rationalism along with Tamil nationalism and social justice was considered to be the credo of the Dravidian ideology. The nonagenarian Karunanidhi as well as other leaders of the Dravidian movement have started their political career preaching rationalism. As early as in 1942, DMK founder C N Annadurai had written a series of articles in Dravida Nadu arguing that Hinduism was alien to the Tamil country and hence the Tamils were not Hindus. For his part Karunanidhi too has revelled in Ram-bashing and got away with it.“From which engineering college did Ram got his degree?” he had asked during the height of the agitation of saffron organisations against the Sethu Samudram shipping canal project, a white elephant and a pet project of the DMK.
Making a conscious effort at image makeover ahead of the 2016 assembly polls, Stalin, the long serving apprentice engaged with ‘ward politics’, appears to be determined to shed the ideological baggage. During his ongoing pre-poll roadshow christened, ‘Namakku Naamey’ (We for Ourselves), the DMK’s ‘rising son’ took time to visit the temple with a hoary past in Sivaganga district. After being accorded full temple honours, he was taken to the temple tower from where Sri Ramanuja was believed to have announced the ‘Ashtakshara Mantra’ (Om Namo Narayana), kept as a secret by a few, to the entire village. Placing his hand on a statue of the 11th century Vaishnavite saint-philosopher, he even posed for shutterbugs.
“Wasn’t it Ramanuja who named Dalits as ‘Thirukulathaar’ (children of goddess Lakshmi) thousand years before Gandhi christened them as Harijans,” was a query from Stalin, exclaimed a traditional priest at the temple.
Predictably, the DMK leader seeking divine blessings has kicked up a controversy with he becoming an object of ridicule in social media and the ruling AIADMK debunking him and needling the DMK patriarch to take action against his son for straying away from the rationalist path. In a stinging column, the AIADMK mouthpiece Namadhu MGR asked, “Will he (Karunanidhi) now apologise for Ram-bashing and maligning Hindus as thieves?” It also reminded the DMK how it had vilified thespian Sivaji Ganesan and forced him to quit the party for offering prayers at Tirupati.
But, an unfazed Stalin justified his break with the past through a Facebook posting. Responding to a question, he says over 90 of the DMK cadres are Hindus. Further, he goes on to draw support from Anna’s famed slogan Ondrey Kulam Oruvane Devan (Mankind is one, so is God) taken from Tirumandiram, a Saivite treatise by Tirumoolar. And he did not forget to mention Karunanidhi writing the script for the TV serial on Sri Ramanuja, presenting him as one who fought against caste discrimination.
Well, Stalin’s political discourse eschews ideology as he is more interested in presenting himself as a man of development. Also, it is a calibrated attempt to erase the past as the DMK’s mass mobilisation has been a secular and anti-Brahmin one, challenging the established social order. In this, the leading lights have made full use of writing, theatre and films as effective tools to spread the ideology. As such, analysts are sceptical of the DMK’s GenNext leadership gamble.
“Ideologically bankrupt, the DMK is increasingly marginalised in the political domain. Dumping rationalism will not change its political fortunes. It is synonymous with corruption and dynastic politics. It has come to an ideological dead end. Sacrificing ideology at the altar of political power has landed the party in the present pathetic situation. To be precise, when the Dravidian movement itself has outlived its utility, the DMK can’t expect a turnaround by gimmicks like temple visits,” says Professor V Saravanan of Jamia Milia Islamia, New Delhi. In his view, the party needs to re-invent itself and understand the changed social dynamics to be relevant.