During a recent visit to Thane, home to Maharashtra’s chief minister Eknath Shinde, an auto-rickshaw driver shared a ‘secret’ in a hushed voice. A staunch Shiv Sainik, traumatised by the political theatre that unfolded in his state, he said it was brazenly clinical “sorcery” by the ED and CBI. Surely, those who get drawn to honeycombs can’t afford to be ignorant about the hidden bees. They can sting you to political obsolescence. Probably, the only way out is what Yediyurappa, Narayan Rane, Adhikari, and many others have demonstrated with their perseverance. Joining the ruling party is akin to taking a divine dip in the Ganges. Bees simply fly away.
When all opposition-ruled states and their leaders face the fury of probe agencies, Tamil Nadu stands sorely isolated. The agencies seem to be on a long holiday here. ED, CBI, EOW, DRI, and I-T, both parrot and non-parrot genres, you name it, have kept themselves away, barring a few raids by the NIA over the Coimbatore car blast that killed one person in October last year. What could be the reason? Is the political class in TN genuinely unblemished? Everybody has a ready answer. Stalin’s two years may not have reported any headline-grabbing scams so far, but everyone knows how fertile the ground is. The second wealthiest state after Maharashtra may not have institutionalised a 40% commission like in Karnataka, but ground reports suggest TN doesn’t lag far behind.
By keeping the probe agencies away, is BJP counting a friend in DMK with an eye on 2024, in case it falls short of the majority? The saffron party’s dream of building a resilient alternative in TN and dislodging the Dravidian parties from Fort St. George has, however, faced back-to-back jolts. During the Erode by-election, EPS consciously stayed away from sharing the stage with them and relegated its alliance partner to a corner.
Worse, the national party was left to campaign for EPS’ candidate, without a choice. What has widened the rift between the two further is the exodus from the BJP to the AIADMK. It eventually led the IPS-turned-state chief to stress the need for his party to fight the 2024 elections on its own. Well, all it took is a call from Delhi. EPS’ clarification came in no time, a measured one that is: “We never said ‘no’ to the BJP.” Loosely translated, it means nothing. For the leader, who is now emboldened by recent court orders, tomorrow could be another day.
Stalin, on his part, is busy playing a perfect fiddle for an anti-BJP symphony. His 70th birthday celebrations in Chennai on March 1 turned out to be a launchpad for another campaign. At the gathering, what he fondly called “the inaugural event for India’s new politics,” Stalin discarded the idea of a third front and called for a united fight against BJP. On its part, BJP is a tad clueless about Stalin’s anti-BJP tirade, but it loves to remind him of the past l’amour. (For the uninitiated, DMK joined hands with the NDA in 1999, and was part of the Vajpayee government until 2003.)
Recently, when rumours of attacks on migrant workers in TN went viral, Stalin accused the BJP and its leaders in north Indian cities of spreading rumours in response to his call for a united national-level alliance against the BJP. The state police booked several people linked to the BJP, including K Annamalai, under sections of inciting violence and promoting enmity between groups, among others. Annamalai dared the DMK government to arrest him. Since then, the whole controversy has evaporated into thin air.
If the EPS-led AIADMK deems that a coalition with the BJP would only spoil its chances, the BJP’s plans of piggybacking on a Dravidian party until it gathers momentum in the state may fall flat. Annamalai is a man in hurry, but the trek ahead of him looks extremely steep. Can the probe agencies be the proverbial cat among the pigeons and do a Maharashtra in TN? As Annamalai says openly, there are no permanent friends and foes in politics.
Anto T Joseph
Resident Editor, Tamil Nadu
anto@newindianexpress.com
@AntoJoseph