It’s not often in Tamil Nadu that a governor invites the leader of the Opposition to Raj Bhavan for a briefing. So when DMK working president M K Stalin honoured Banwarilal Purohit’s invite and later claimed the governor had agreed to consider reining in his urge to inspect development works in various districts in the state, there appeared to be something more than met the eye. What persuaded Governor Purohit to accept the DMK’s position that his meetings with district officials were against democratic norms and the state’s autonomy, when he had refused to heed it earlier?
When over four months ago PM Narendra Modi sprang a surprise by dropping in at the Gopalapuram residence of ailing DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi, Governor Purohit had accompanied him, which became a talking point. That visit was widely seen as the BJP exploring new political alignments, though Stalin tried to deflect it. He was also quite uneasy as his sister and Rajya Sabha member Kanimozhi emerged as the nodal point for the visit; Stalin came into the picture at the last phase. A month later, a special CBI court scrubbed the 2G scam taint off the DMK by exonerating all 17 accused, including Kanimozhi. It gave the DMK bragging rights to claim it was as clean as a whistle.
For the BJP that aims to mop up a good number of seats in the South to compensate for the anticipated depletion in the North during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the verdict that made the DMK kosher opened a window of possibilities. Also, with the Madras High Court verdict on the fate of the 18 suspended AIADMK lawmakers expected anytime soon, the governor touching base with the DMK scion made a lot of sense. For the record, Purohit briefed Stalin on how and why he chose Prof Tamma Suryanarayana Sastry as the new Vice Chancellor of the Tamil Nadu Dr Ambedkar Law University, an appointment that had triggered controversy. Let us not be misled by the DMK noise around Cauvery. Is something else cooking?