Late last year, the actor had announced that he would not be joining politics. The organisation he had set up for his political entry will now function under his fans’ forum.
Chennai: Rajinikanth on July 12 announced that he would disband the Rajini Makkal Mandram, launched for his political entry and reiterated that he has no intention of involving himself in politics in future.
Hours after he fielded questions from fans and Mandram functionaries as to whether or not we was going to come to politics in future, the actor, following discussions with office-bearers said he would not join politics.
“What we hoped for did not materialise,” he said.
“I have no intention of involving myself in politics in future,” he asserted in a statement.
Hence the RMM is disbanded and the functionaries would as before work under the Rajinikanth Fans Forum (Rajinikanth Rasigar Narpani Mandram) which is aimed at carrying out activities for people’s welfare, he said.
After he announced last year that he would not take the political plunge, it was his duty to clarify on the status of the Mandram which was created as a precursor body to facilitate the launch of a political party, he added.
The fans forum, an apolitical welfare body, was converted into RMM and this new outfit was launched in 2018.
Office-bearers were appointed in both districts and at the state-level while separate wings were also formed to support the launch of political party.
Before meeting functionaries at a wedding hall owned by him here, the actor, speaking to reporters referred to questions being raised on the Mandram and ‘whether or not’ he would be in politics, which led to a flutter of excitement among his fans till he came out with a statement reiterating his ‘no to politics’ stand.
While fans were briefly excited, others on social media wondered why the actor was revisiting this matter as he had himself, last year, addressed the two-decade old question conclusively.
The actor, who returned from USA days ago after a health check-up told reporters: “Should the Makkal Mandram be continued and if so, what will be its functions are questions among functionaries and fans. There are also questions as to whether or not I am going to come to politics in future.”
On December 3, 2020, the actor had said that he would launch his party in January 2021 ahead of the Assembly elections. However, during the last week of December last year, he did a u-turn and announced that he would not join politics.
Since then, several of the Mandram functionaries had joined political parties including the DMK.
That the actor is worthy of the award is not in dispute. But the timing – with Tamil Nadu set to vote on April 6 – leads one to wonder if the Modi government is trying to leverage the star’s popularity for political gains.
Guwahati: Five days before the people of Tamil Nadu are to choose their next government, the Narendra Modi government announced the celebrated Tamil actor Rajinikanth as the winner of the prestigious Dadasaheb Phalke award.
Announcing the decision on April 1, information and broadcasting minister Prakash Javadekar, rightly observed, “Through his talent and hard work, [Rajinikanth] has made a space for himself in the hearts of millions of people”.
A day after the votes polled in Tamil Nadu and the other states holding elections are counted, Rajinikanth will be conferred the honour by President Ram Nath Kovind in New Delhi.
In an election season when the Bharatiya Janata Party is trying its utmost to become a player in the Tamil Nadu assembly polls with help from the ruling AIADMK, Javadekar’s description of Rajinikanth making “space” in the “hearts of millions of people” cannot be read as only praise bestowed on a deserving candidate for the Central award.
While no one can dispute the actor’s popularity among filmgoers in Tamil Nadu, elsewhere in the country and even the world – his oeuvre and one-of-a-kind filmography speak for themselves – the timing of the announcement and the intended political messaging of the Modi government to the voters in a poll-bound state – must not be overlooked and needs to be put into context.
After all, the award is for 2019, and the fact that the government found no time over the past year to make the announcement speaks for itself.
What must be understood is that the BJP is trying to appeal to the Scheduled Castes (STs) in that state and has already strategically picked L. Murugan as its Tamil Nadu party president. A report in the pro-establishment news site Swarajya in October last year says that Murugan’s selection and Rajnikanth’s plan to dabble in politics are conspicuously connected.
“In view of his health and other compulsions, Rajinikanth might be inclined to back Prime Minister Modi and the BJP instead of launching his own party,” the report had said.
It said that “indications” from “sources” within the Rajini Makkal Mandram (Rajini People’s Forum, the party that the actor started before quickly deciding to exit politics) had also claimed that Rajinikanth “is preparing the ground” to join the BJP.
Rajinikanth. Photo: PTI/Files
“The sources justify the decision on various developments that have taken place with regard to the actor featuring in films like Kabali and Kaala, and also the BJP, which has made L Murugan, who belongs to the Scheduled Castes, its state president”.
The report had quoted a Mandram activist from a rural belt of the state to say, “The Scheduled Castes make up 21 per cent of the state’s population. Till this day, they have never made it big in state politics. They have not even got any major portfolio either in the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) or All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) governments since 1967.”
The unnamed activist had told the right-wing news site, “Rajinikanth chose a different path and subject when others were making films on other communities of Other Backward Classes, who have been enjoying all the benefits in the state since 1967. The Scheduled Castes have got little in terms of power or development from these Dravidian parties.”
The Swarajya report also said, “He (Rajinikanth) enters politics by launching a party, he will be under attack from both the DMK and the AIADMK.” Quoting an unnamed political observer, it said, “He will be targeted on all sides and his properties in various parts of the state are at stake.”
It is in this context that the Modi government’s decision to accord the Dada Saheb Phalke award to Rajinikanth in a state going to polls must also be viewed then.
Bharat Ratna to Bhupen Hazarika
This is not the first time that the BJP has tried to instrumentalise a state icon with immense following in an election to the party’s advantage, particularly in a state where it is trying to become a player.
In Assam too, it had tried to ride on the immense popularity of the celebrated singer Bhupen Hazarika back in the 2004 general elections, unsuccessfully so. That the Dhola-Sadiya Bridge, the longest in India, inaugurated by Modi in 2017, had also been named after the Bard of the Brahmaputra is not free of political messaging either to the people of a state where regional sentiment is paramount. It is a state where the BJP wants to form a government one day without the help of regional formations.
In the thick of the Assamese public’s anger against the Modi government for its decision to not keep out Assam from the Citizenship Amendment Act (it was a Bill then) so the Assam Accord would not be violated, the BJP government at the Centre brought in the Hazarika factor once again. This time, by awarding him the Bharat Ratna, the country’s highest civilian honour. The discussion is not whether Hazarika deserved the award or not (he absolutely did), but rather about the timing, which raised eyebrows not just in Assam but also within his immediate family. It was the reason why his son Tej Hazarika had initially refused to accept the honour.
Significantly, the award to Hazarika was announced in the run-up to the 2019 general elections where Modi was seeking his second term and the party’s target was to win as many Lok Sabha seats as possible from the state, which has the largest number of parliamentary seats among the eight northeastern states.
Bhupen Hazarika. Photo: Wikipedia
Award named after Satyajit Ray
The BJP’s flagrant ‘award politics’ could be spotted in the run-up to the crucial 2021 West Bengal assembly polls too, where the party is trying to make a foray. This past February, the Modi government instituted a national level film award after the legendary Bengali filmmaker Satyajit Ray. Once more, a state icon was seen being instrumentalised by the BJP government to generate goodwill for the party among voters of a poll-bound state.
Ray’s genius is such that no questions can be asked about an award being named after him, but what must be not overlooked again is the timing and the political messaging prior to a crucial election in a sate where he is an undisputed public icon.
Addressing a poll rally at Gosaba in West Bengal this past week, top BJP leader and the country’s home minister Amit Shah invoked ‘award politics’ once more. “We will be instituting Tagore prize on the lines of Nobel Prize and Satyajit Ray Award on the lines of Oscars to pay tribute to the two sons of Bengal,” Shah reportedly said.
Bharat Ratna to Pranab Mukherjee
In the run-up to the 2019 general elections, alongside Hazarika, Pranab Mukherjee too was named by the Modi government as a recipient of the Bharat Ratna. Mukherjee became the first Bengali to be the country’s president, a moment of pride for the state. The BJP had earlier tried to appropriate yet another icon from Bengal, Subhash Chandra Bose.
Picking Hazarika and Mukherjee for the highest civilian honour in 2019 was crucial for the BJP in states driven by regional sentiments and where the Modi government’s glory from the ‘surgical strike’ on Pakistan might not have worked as an electoral high point, like it did in the northern belt. While it is impossible to say to what extent this strategy played a role, the BJP performed well in both Assam and Bengal.
Pranab Mukherjee with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Photo: pranabmukherjee.nic.in
Padma Shri awards
As per news reports, the high number of Padma Shri awardees in 2019 – an election year – was also a strategic move by the Modi government. However, in this aspect, it is not alone.
“Three general elections to the Lok Sabha were held in the last 19 years and the fourth one is due this year (2019). In all the four election years, the number of Padma Shri awards is significantly greater than the average of the preceding four years,” noted Rakesh Dubbudu on Factly.in, after analysing the data of such awards available on the website of the Ministry of Home Affairs. He had highlighted, “This trend is observed both when the Congress was in power and also now, when the BJP is ruling.”
The data shows that in 2004 [when the NDA was in power}, the number of Padma Shri awardees was 74, while the average of the preceding four years was 57. After the UPA came to power, it gave away 93 Padma Shri awards in 2009, against the average of 66 in the preceding four years. In 2014, the Manmohan Singh government awarded 100 persons with the Padma Shri honour, compared to the preceding four year average of 80.
Dubbudu highlighted that the trend the Modi government duly adopted this strategy too, giving away 94 Padma Shri awards in 2019, while the preceding 4-year average was 76.
National awards for films
When speaking about awards given in 2019, it is impossible not to mention Vicky Kaushal, who won the national award for best actor in the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls for his film Uri: The Surgical Strike, which had glorified the Indian Army’s role in Kashmir, a card that the BJP had played for electoral gains in those general elections.
That in the thick of the protests against the three farm laws brought by the Modi government, the pro-BJP actor Kangana Ranaut was given the national award in the best actress category also cannot be overlooked. She was famously and almost singlehandedly holding the fort on Twitter for the Modi government on the farm laws issue. And yet, a significant film in Bodo, Jwlwi – The Seed was ignored, triggering its director Rajni Basumatary to pen an open letter to the chairman of the national film awards. Basumatary’s letter can be read here.
Kangana Ranaut in a still from ‘Manikarnika’.
A slightly different plan in poll-bound Kerala?
Yet another state going to the polls on April 6 is Kerala. One may ask why such no blatant announcement of awards has yet been made for a Malayali icon, where too the BJP trying to make an entry.
The strategy in Kerala could be similar to that in Assam, when the BJP put up Hazarika to contest in 2004 from Guwahati, knowing well that he might not win the elections. The party knew it would help send a message to the community that the party is approved by such a public and popular figure.
Ten years after that messaging, the BJP pocketed the largest number of Lok Sabha seats in a state where many of its party candidates had even lost their security deposits.
Two years after that 2014 triumph, the party had its first chief minister by riding on the shoulders of Sarbananda Sonowal, an icon of the highly-charged anti-foreigner movement, who was termed jatiyo nayak or the community’s hero, by the majority Assamese community.
The BJP’s plan in Kerala with Sreedharan may, therefore, be a similar, long-term plan.
New Delhi: Superstar Rajinikanth will be bestowed with the Dada Saheb Phalke award, Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar announced on Thursday.
“India every year gives Dada Saheb Phalke award to a film personality. This year this selection has been made by a jury comprising Asha Bhonsle, Mohanlal, Biswajit Chatterjee, Shankar Mahadevan and Subhash Ghai.
Last week, the Tamil superstar was admitted to a hospital due to severe blood pressure fluctuations.
New Delhi: Film actor Rajinikanth, who has been floating the idea that he will be joining politics for years now and recently said that he will be launching a party in 2021, has now said that he will not be becoming a politician after all, for health reasons.
Last week, the Tamil superstar was admitted to a hospital due to severe blood pressure fluctuations. He had been shooting for a movie in Hyderabad. His COVID-19 test was negative. He was released from the hospital on Monday, and reportedly advised to be on bed rest for a week.
In a statement released on Tuesday, Rajinikanth said that while he will not be able to participate in electoral politics, he will continue to serve the people in whatever way he can. The illness, he said, was a “warning from God” that he should not take on more pressures.
“Ignoring my doctors’ and well-wishers’ advice, I went to Hyderabad for filming. We took great precautions but even so four people out of a crew of 120 tested positive for COVID-19. The director immediately stopped filming and we all received medical attention. At the same time, I got high BP and was hospitalised. High or low BP is bad for me because they affect my transplanted kidney badly. Under doctors’ advise, I stayed at the hospital for three days and was supervised. In view of my bad health, the producer Kalanadhi Maran [scion of the DMK family] postponed filming,” the statement reads, in Tamil.
“Many people lost their jobs and crores of rupees because of my illness. I see this as god’s warning to me. If I contest the elections, I will have to meet many thousands of people in campaigns and rallies. Even though a smaller group of 120 people took all precautions, the coronavirus infected four of them, and has in fact apparently returned to the state in a second wave. COVID-19 vaccines also may not help; I am already taking immunosuppressants for my health,” Rajinikanth continued.
“If I contest the elections, the people who begin their political journeys with me are likely to face significant physical, mental and financial challenges. And I don’t wish to scapegoat my comrades simply because rumours and speculation will fly if I say I’m a man of my word, that I intend to enter the political fray but just that I won’t contest the elections this year. Therefore, with utmost sadness, I announce that I’m not going to float a political party and enter politics.”
At the start of December, Rajinikanth had said that his new party would be competing in the 2021 Tamil Nadu assembly elections. The actor promised a brand of ‘spiritual politics’.
The superstar and new politician has tested negative for COVID-19 and is under observation.
Hyderabad: Superstar Rajinikanth was on Friday admitted to Apollo Hospitals here as he was suffering from severe blood pressure fluctuations, the hospital said in a statement.
He was shooting for a movie here for the past 10 days and had isolated himself and is being monitored closely after a few people on the sets tested COVID-19 positive.
The 70 year-old actor, however, tested negative.
“Mr Rajinikanth has been admitted in the hospital today in the morning…Though he did not have any symptoms of COVID-19, his BP showed severe fluctuations and needed further evaluation for which he has been admitted to the hospital,” Apollo Hospitals said.
He will be investigated and monitored closely in the hospital till his BP settles down before being discharged, it said.
Apart from fluctuating blood pressure and exhaustion, he does not have any other symptoms and is “haemodynamically” stable, the statement said.
TDP supremo and former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu wished the actor a speedy recovery.
“Deeply concerned about superstar @rajinikanth after hearing the news of him being admitted to a hospital today. Wishing him a speedy recovery and good health!” he said in a tweet.
Actor and Jana Sena founder Pawan Kalyan in a statement hoped that Rajinikanth would come out healthy with the blessings of Mahavatar Babaji whom the superstar considers as Guru.
Rajinikanth had earlier arrived here for the shoot of his latest film Annaatthe, which has been halted after four of the film’s crew members tested positive for COVID-19.
Sun Pictures, the production house, said on Wednesday that the top actor and other crew members have tested negative for the virus.
The shoot for the movie, directed by Siva and featuring Keerthy Suresh, Nayanthara, Khusbu and Prakash Raj among others, resumed here on December 14.
“We will cooperate by giving up any ego and this has already been stated. There is nothing new to add,” said the actor.
Sivakasi (Tamil Nadu): On his campaign trail, Makkal Needhi Maiam chief Kamal Haasan on Tuesday invoked the welfare legacy of iconic leader, late M.G. Ramachandran, and said that the former chief minister belonged to the whole of Tamil Nadu.
Haasan asserted that ‘ego’ could be buried and he may join hands with Rajinikanth if electoral ties between their respective parties could be beneficial to the people.
To a question related to Rajinikanth’s party launch in January 2021, Haasan said that if their association could be beneficial to the people, “We will cooperate by giving up any ego and this has already been stated. There is nothing new to add.”
Indicating their deep friendship, he told reporters at Tuticorin, “We are just a phone call away.”
If ties between them could be compatible vis-à-vis policies and programmes of the two parties, there could be an electoral tie-up, he said, adding that both of them would help each other “if possible.”
Like him, Rajinikanth too has raised his voice for a political transformation in Tamil Nadu. “Let him spell out his party’s ideology,” he said.
Further discussion on the possibility of ties may be taken forward only later, he said.
In the past too, both the actors had said that they were not against joining hands and their assurance to people about corruption free governance and honest politics is a common feature.
Earlier in the day, refraining from naming the AIADMK, he said that the party was annoyed after he highlighted MGR in his recent address to a gathering and they claimed the leader only belonged to them.
The late leader, however, belonged to the whole of Tamil Nadu and not just to a party, he said while addressing an MNM event here.
It was the reason why the people adored him as ‘Makkal Thilagam’ (leader of the people) notwithstanding his party affiliation, be it the DMK or later, the AIADMK which he founded, Haasan noted.
All the people in the state would say MGR belonged to them and when this was the case, if the ruling party wanted to get him labelled as the leader of only one party, then the public would give their verdict against such a stand, he said, adding that such a flawed stand worked in their favour.
He tweeted saying that he grew up ‘on the lap of MGR’ while several Tamil Nadu ministers would not have even seen him personally.
He tagged a 1980’s video clip of MGR honouring him with a shawl and award and kissing him. The video appeared to be recorded at a film function.
Superstar Rajinikanth and the Bharatiya Janata Party have also clung to MGR’s legacy of welfare that had drawn the ire of AIADMK, which said that it was the only successor to his legacy.
MGR is loved by the people for several welfare measures undertaken during his tenure from 1977 to 1987, including the nutritious meal programme for state-run and government aided school students.
Without naming any parties, Haasan said Tamil Nadu would give a fitting reply to those who thought of wrecking India’s pluralistic ethos through caste or religion.
“Tamil Nadu always had a distinctive feature and it shall give its verdict against such divisive tendencies”, he said.
Taking a dig at the BJP, he said that the party could not even keep the national capital clean which prompted Congress leader Sonia Gandhi to go on a sojourn recently to Goa.
He, however, did not explicitly mention the saffron party or Sonia Gandhi.
Also, he reiterated his earlier promises of honest, corruption free governance.
On December 13, launching his campaign for the Assembly elections due next year, from Madurai, he hinted at the possibility of political realignment in Tamil Nadu.
He also said that he was ‘continuing’ late MGR’s dream to make ‘Madurai’ the state’s second capital.
Launched in 2005, Vijayakanth’s DMDK managed to shake the AIADMK and, for a while, was seen as a bright star in state politics before its stock fell.
Rajinikanth’s announcement that he will launch his political party in January has created a stir in Tamil Nadu politics, although there is no guarantee yet that his charisma and popularity will automatically lead to political heft. The story of the DMDK, another filmstar-led party, may show Rajinikanth what space Tamil Nadu offers him and what it doesn’t offer.
Launched in 2005, the Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK) is helmed by popular actor, Vijayakanth. It managed to shake the AIADMK and, for a while, was seen as a bright star in state politics before its stock fell.
File photo of Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK) president Vijayakanth and his party MLAs seen outside the Tamil Nadu Assembly in 2011. Photo: PTI
The name Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam seemed a contradiction in terms. It translates as National Progressive Dravida Organisation/Assembly/Group. Dravidian parties are champions of regionalism so how could they be nationalistic?
But DMDK was actually a well thought out name. It sought the mantle of the original AIADMK. Though regional, the AIADMK did not go so far as to stand against robust nationalism even in its early days.
The DMDK was born as a reaction to Jayalalithaa giving a rightward turn to the AIADMK during her term in 2001-06. She had allied with the BJP for the 2004 Lok Sabha elections after the DMK had left the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), brought in an anti-conversion law, cracked down on striking government employees, and sought to summarily dismiss thousands of them from service. She was no more the benevolent champion of welfare politics like her predecessor, M.G. Ramachandran (MGR).
Jayalalithaa thought it was a time for strong leadership, governance, discipline, investment and protection of Hinduism. It was a time when the state seemed to be syncing with the Gujarat model ushered in by a rising star in the BJP. It was also the time the DMDK started making inroads and Vijayakanth was dubbed ‘Black MGR‘ – Vijayakanth was dark-skinned, unlike MGR whose fair skin was the object of much adulation.
The formative years of Dravidian parties
The AIADMK may have been born in 1972 as a result of a vertical split in the DMK but it did not strike its first roots as an alternative to the party. The two parties’ ideological moorings are similar: advocacy of ethnic identity, non-brahmin empowerment in-part through reservation, love of Tamil language, minority rights, and federalism. Both the parties were ethnic and populist, with the AIADMK, led by a charismatic MGR, seeking to represent the poorest and the most marginalised. Dalits, women and the urban underclass were its natural constituency.
The AIADMK first grew in the areas where the DMK had not upended the Congress. As Narendra Subramaniam has shown in his book, Ethnicity and Populist Mobilization, the DMK grew much faster in northern Tamil Nadu as well as in the Cauvery Delta regions, displacing the communists and passing the Congress in the 1950s and 1960s. But the national party remained strong in the western region as well as in the south where it faced the communists. To shore up her position, Indira Gandhi sought an alliance with the DMK for the sake of precious Lok Sabha seats and gave up on the state, leaving a rump Congress led by Kamaraj to battle the DMK. And the AIADMK filled the space vacated by the Congress.
The demise of M. Karunanidhi and J. Jayalalithaa who had ruled alternatively ruled Tamil Nadu for decades has left a political vacuum in the state. Photo: Wikipedia.
Even as the DMK and the AIADMK grew into becoming pan-Tamil Nadu parties, their strongholds continued to be separate – the north and Cauvery Delta for the DMK and the west and the south for the AIADMK. The AIADMK emerged as an alternative to the Congress and that reflected in its political stances. Its hallmark remained the support of the most marginalised sections, a charismatic leadership, and welfare politics.
In 2006, the AIADMK, having changed course, lost the elections. The DMK with its welfarist manifesto came to power.
Meanwhile, the DMDK started spreading roots and was commanding a good 10% of the vote. Jayalalithaa saw which way the political currents were heading and pulled back. She jettisoned the BJP as a liability in the state where Muslims and Christians constitute 12% of the population. She refrained from aligning with it ever again. Having cut her teeth in Dravidian politics by shepherding the groundbreaking noon meals scheme in the 1980s, Jayalalithaa took the party back to its moorings. And she came back to power in 2011 only to expand the state’s welfare schemes and retain power in 2016.
As the AIADMK bounced back, the DMDK lost steam. Dogged by ill-health, its leader Vijayakanth was viciously targeted. His personality was ridiculed and his political flip-flops made him lose credibility. Trolls portrayed him as a buffoon on social media. Vijayakanth memes became popular mirth-making distractions. He is now in no position to take advantage of Jayalalithaa’s leaving the scene.
Capturing the political vacuum
Rajinikanth publicly said there was a vacuum in Tamil Nadu after her passing away in 2016. He re-organised his fan clubs to form the backbone of a future political party and has announced he will formally launch the party in January, in time for the coming elections.
Rajini seems to seek the AIADMK’s space. He shares common ground with the party’s former leaders. Rajini is nationalistic, a tad more than the AIADMK leaders though. The poorest and the urban underclass love him. Though Rajini is Maharashtrian, he is regarded as the Tamil hero. MGR was Malayali and Jayalalithaa was born and raised in Karnataka. Even Vijayakanth came from the Telugu-speaking Naidu caste. Yet, all of them were considered quintessentially Tamil in a state where identity is lived, not born into. Tamils love Rajinikanth just as they adored MGR. He is one among them. But the comparisons stop there.
Fans of actor-turned-politician Rajinikanth gather outside the venue of his meeting with senior functionaries of Rajini Makkal Mandram to decide on political plunge in Chennai on November 30, 2020. Photo: PTI/ R Senthil Kumar.
Rajini’s party is like the AIADMK of 2001-06. The filmstar consistently supports Modi and the BJP’s positions on many issues. He advocates spiritual politics and decries corruption and bad governance.
Rajini is big on discipline. After the Sterlite shootings, he criticised agitationist impulses. His political platform is based on a vague middle-class fear that there is something wrong in Denmark. He advocates changing the system but has never really specified what change he is talking about.
It seems like Rajini wants to be a Tamil Nadu version of the BJP which lies outside the big tent of Dravidian politics. While Dravidianists describe Tamil religious practices as requiring to be purged of Vedic influences, the BJP sees Tamil religion as part of the broader umbrella of Vedic Hinduism – and Rajini seems to agree. Rajini recently said Periyar, the founder of the Dravidian movement, is irrelevant in the state. In the Dravidian world, Muslims and Christians are Dravidians while the BJP sees little value in the Dravidian nomenclature.
But the BJP is yet to demonstrate a substantial base in Tamil Nadu – something it has done even in Kerala. Its politics has not struck roots in Tamil Nadu until now. Narendra Modi’s leadership was rejected by Tamil Nadu voters in 2014 as well as in 2019.
Therefore the way forward for Rajini may well be to retrace Jayalalithaa’s steps when she pulled back after the 2006 defeat in assembly elections. But it does not appear he understands what works in the state or is inclined to. He seems to think Tamil Nadu politics has shifted already and is ready for the platform he has articulated until now. Jayalalithaa thought so during her second term as chief minister but she was proved wrong in 2006. Rajini may well be proved wrong in 2021 unless he changes tack.
M. Kalyanaraman is a print and broadcast journalist based in Chennai.
The actor, promising a brand of ‘spiritual politics’, categorically said that his party would fight the assembly elections in 2021 and ’emerge victorious’.
New Delhi: Superstar actor Rajinikanth on Thursday asserted that he will launch a political party in January 2021, ending years of suspense on whether he was planning to join the electoral arena. His announcement brought immediate celebration from his many of fans.
The actor, promising a brand of ‘spiritual politics’, categorically said that his party would fight the assembly elections in 2021 and “emerge victorious.”
His tweet reads, “In the coming assembly elections, with people’s generous support and gratitude, I am confident of creating an honest, corruption-free, transparent, secular, spiritual politics with integrity in TN. Wonders, Miracles, Possible.”
Assembly elections are due in Tamil Nadu during April-May 2021.
Rajinikanth expressed confidence that his to be floated outfit would be able to “win elections with the huge support of people.”
An announcement on matters connected to the party launch would be made on December 31, he said, on Twitter.
The actor has fuelled large-scale speculation over the last few years on whether or not he plans to join politics, and what his core agenda will be. He first announced his political plans in December 2017, but they did not come to fruition. Since then, several reports have come in on how the actor is still actively planning to enter politics.
Questions have also been asked on whether or not Rajinikanth will ally with the Bharatiya Janata Party. The actor appears to be trying to lay some of this speculation to rest, and in November 2019 said that even though right-wing Hindu forces have tried to “saffronise” him, he doesn’t want to be a part of it.
Although the trend has provided much-needed relief for a few small manufacturers, the protest is much more than just anti-Hindi sentiment.
Chennai: On September 5, acclaimed music director Yuvan Shankar Raja and actor Metro Shirish tweeted a photograph of them wearing T-shirts with slogans opposing the imposition of Hindi. While Yuvan’s T-shirts read ‘I am a Thamizh Pesum Indian’ (I am a Tamil speaking Indian), Shirish’s in red said ‘Hindi Theriyaathu Poda’ (I don’t know Hindi, go away).
The T-shirts were apparently DMK MP Kanimozhi’s idea. In August, the politician was asked by a member of the airport security staff if she was Indian when she told him that she did not speak Hindi.
In less than a week after Raja and Shirish’s photo became viral, tens of thousands of similar T-shirts began selling like hot cakes across Tamil Nadu and even in many countries that have a Tamil population.
For at least a handful of small-time manufacturers in Tiruppur district of Tamil Nadu, the anti-Hindi sentiment meant a viable business opportunity. “I have already delivered 6,000 pieces of these anti-Hindi T-shirts,” says B. Karthikeyan, who runs a small manufacturing unit. One of the earliest manufacturers to print the T-shirts, Karthikeyan says they were the first order he had since March, when the coronavirus-induced lockdown was imposed.
“There are many people manufacturing them now. But personally, for me, this order came as a big relief. I still have 5,000 pieces pending to be delivered, and just today I received an order for 500 more pieces,” he says.
Anti-Hindi T-shirts being printed in Tiruppur. Photo: By arrangement
M. Shekar is a ‘buying agent’ in Tiruppur and he procures the shirts from manufacturers and then sells them. “The idea has benefitted more than 15 small-time manufacturers. On average, a manufacturer has received an order of 5,000 pieces. In a week, the manufacturers made a business worth about Rs 1.5-2 crore. They continue to receive orders from Chennai, Singapore, the US and elsewhere.”
Shekar, who deals largely with orders placed by politicians, says Kanimozhi was involved in designing the T-shirts. “Out of 20 designs, four were finalised. It took about a week. We are happy that the other manufacturers who have started printing the T-shirts have largely stuck to the original idea,” he said.
Rafiq, another Tiruppur based buying agent, says the city has always picked up early on trends. “The T-shirts move very fast and there is a demand. But it’s not just about anti-Hindi T-shirts. Every time a trend appears, it is the manufacturers from Tiruppur who market it. When Rajinikanth’s Kabaali was released, T-shirts with Kabaali’s image on it were manufactured on a large scale,” he says.
On September 6, Kanimozhi shared an image of her with a group of youngsters wearing the T-shirts. “A spark is enough to ignite a sentiment. When we printed Tshirts, in the era of blatant Hindi imposition, we didn’t know that the youngsters would respond passionately like our forefathers in fighting discriminatory practices. Thank you.”
A spark is enough to ignite a sentiment.When we printed Tshirts, in the era of blatant Hindi imposition,we didn’t know that the youngsters would respond passionately like our forefathers in fighting discriminatory practices. Thank you.#ஹிந்தி_தெரியாது_போடா#StopHindiImpositionpic.twitter.com/44HHjXuS3d
The spark seems to have spread to the neighbouring states too. On September 13, actor Prakash Raj tweeted a photograph of him wearing a similar T-shirt.
Soon after Kanimozhi tweeted about the discrimination she faced from the CISF officer, national award-winning Tamil director Vetrimaaran also shared a bitter experience. He said in an interview that in 2011, at the Delhi airport, he was made to wait for 45 minutes by an immigration official after revealing that he did not know Hindi. The immigration official had accused ‘Tamils and Kashmiris of breaking the country,’ Vetrimaaran said.
“Not just about anti-Hindi sentiment”
But Aazhi Senthilnathan, president of the Thannatchi Thamizhagam movement (Autonomous Tamil Nadu) thinks the T-shirts represent more than just anti-Hindi sentiment. “I see this movement as the voice of the urban middle-class youth, some of whom might even speak Hindi,” he says.
Senthilnathan recalls his visit to Karnataka three years ago, after a section of the youth and students protested against the decision to use Hindi as the third language on signboards at metro stations. “I could see that many of them [the protesters] spoke Hindi. In the last six years, Hindi has come to symbolise the hegemony of the North, that takes away our jobs and affects our economy,” he said.
He points to anti-Hindi protests in Central government and public sector offices in recent years, which he says is the result of the appointment of a large number of Hindi-speaking officials. “I have known Central government offices where circulars were issued in Hindi and the employees were told that they had to leave if they didn’t know Hindi. There is this feeling that a state as developed as Tamil Nadu continues to be discriminated against, and humiliated by Delhi. This North-South divide is now more acute in the urban middle class,” Senthilnathan says.
Senthilnathan says that in the past, such protests emerged only from the traditional Dravidian parties or Tamil nationalists. “If a cinema personality or an ordinary citizen is so vocal now, I see it as a voice against the hegemony.”
Senthilnathan also points out that anti-Hindi protests did not figure in the priorities of the mainstream political parties for the last two decades. “Of course, they would remember the martyrs of the anti-Hindi protests every year and organise events. But since the 1990s, it was not a priority. If it is coming back now, especially among the commoners, I think it is reflective of the mood of the state and the frustration of the youth,” he says.
“The simmering job insecurity among the youth in Tamil Nadu keeps the language issue alive today. There is a new reason to protest Hindi imposition since the middle class of Tamil Nadu face an imminent threat of losing their jobs and livelihood. What happened to Kanimozhi and Vetrimaaran was the manifestation of this fear, of this threat that they are facing,” he says.
Interestingly, Senthilnathan says, this is not the first time that clothes have been used to protest against the imposition of Hindi. In the 1950s, a group of Periyarist women wore sarees that had Tamil letters and slogans like ‘Tamizh Vaazhga’ (Long live, Tamil) printed on them to oppose Hindi imposition. “In the 1950s, Chennai was not as big a city as it is today. The women were picked up by some policemen, who left them somewhere in Poonamalle. It took the women hours to figure their way back.”
In a wide ranging interview to The Wire, the director talks about resistance to caste discrimination, what it can learn from Black cultural expression in the US and symbolism in his movies.
From the absurdist Attakathi (2012) to his blockbuster hit Kaala (2018), director Pa. Ranjith has won both critical acclaim and commercial appeal. He also has his detractors. His directorial debut Attakathi broke mainstream Tamil cinema’s formula for romantic stories. Madras (2014) became sharply more political and is centred around the culture of political graffiti, a practise widespread in Tamil Nadu.
Speaking labour rights in Kabali (2016) and land reform in Kaala (2018), both starring Rajinikanth, have made him a well-known name outside of Tamil cinema’s usual viewership.
His Neelam Productions has released documentaries (Ladies and Gentlewomen, Dr Shoe Maker and others) and feature films (The Last Bomb of WWII, Pariyerum Perumal).
In an interview to The Wire, he speaks about ‘mass films’, caste discrimination and Dr B.R. Ambedkar.
Though Tamil mainstream cinema is often political, there is a radical ideological shift in your own films. What importance do “mass” films have and what has changed?
Of all artistic mediums, cinema is deeply embedded among people. In Tamil Nadu especially, it has a crucial place. Cinema fuelled the spread of the Dravidian movement because they didn’t think of cinema as mere entertainment. Dravidian filmmakers created a space to state their mandate, the struggles they stood for and to foreground Tamil culture, land and language pride.
In later years, many films on land identity [particularly rural narratives, which were popular] became about the pride of dominant castes, under the cover of ‘celebrating Tamil culture’. When I, as a Dalit, watch these films, I have to ask: “Where am I in these? Where is the justice for my community? If they’re speaking of Tamil culture, why isn’t my culture depicted?”
The representation of Dalit characters was painful. Either they were written out, or just their inclusion in the story was considered ‘revolutionary’. The films excluded the discriminatory practices of those dominant communities.
In this context, I had to reflect on what my stories could say. I wanted to show that my culture itself is based on discrimination and violence. Also ask, why were the ways through which Dalits assert their identity through clothes, food and music erased? Today, directors are more conscious when they write Dalit characters. There appears to be greater clarity.
What informs your own writing of Dalit characters?
First, I place myself in these stories and ask, ‘Where do I stand in society?’
More than anyone, Babasaheb [B.R.] Ambedkar has been my icon. He opposed Gandhi and the Congress when he thought they did not address the issues of Dalits. Despite that, after independence, he welcomed the means to legislate change as India’s first law minister. While I looked at him as inspiration, I realised how characters that I write already live in every Dalit community. My brother was the first to go to law school in my village. He helped bring about change.
That’s where resistance comes from and so does the idea for characters that I write. I don’t need to dwell only on degradation. Cinema has enough of that. There is a stereotypical victim: barely clothed, unable even to protest against atrocities done to them. A hero has to save them. That image needed shattering because that’s not how I am. I can stand for myself. My courage comes from Ambedkar. To depict such characters in cinema is a type of counter-culture. A model that I can point to is Spike Lee’s portrayals of black lives—a counter to the Hollywood format.
B.R. Ambedkar. Photo: Wikimedia Commons
There are recent mainstream films vocal about caste oppression, but violence and spectacle are a huge part of the story. Your views?
I don’t doubt the intentions of these filmmakers. They seem to want to speak out, but there has to be a discussion after such films release. You can’t depict the violence done to my community but refuse to register the way they stand up to that violence. It sets up a politics which tells Dalits that you must be a silent victim and only certain others can save you. As a director, I don’t want to graphically show the atrocities that occur. Re-creating them with explicit detail is itself another layer of violence. I don’t agree that this is the only way to evoke an emotional response from the audience.
Speaking of counter-narratives, you refer to anti-caste ideologies in the form of Ram the aggressor, Ravanan the hero in Kaala. In Kabali—the name used for dark-skinned, dispensable, servile, henchmen in old Tamil films is now the hero. What impact does this have?
The point was to bring whoever stands in the margins, as just accessories to the hero’s righteousness in established narratives, into the centre. To make them the heroes. Ambedkar talks about the appropriation of Buddha into the Brahmanical system. He’s also spoken of what dark skin tones are made a signifier of, how lifestyles have made us the villains in the stories of the vedas. In the face of that, I have to state that these are not my stories.
In the tradition of careful symbolism in Tamil cinema, you repeat certain colours within the frame. Red, blue and black stand out. Their significance?
I wasn’t conscious about colour in Attakathi. The film was mainly about peeling away at the popular idea that “love is pure”, about how young people struggle with this concept. The film was a way of exploring these concepts from a Dalit perspective, like a love scene featuring beef.
What I’d been too afraid to say in Attakathi, I could in Madras. That’s where the wall became a metaphor for politics in Tamil Nadu and blue a symbol for Dalit identity. Sometimes, too much gets read into the colours, which is both interesting and saddening.
In Kaala, I very carefully used colours as symbols. Getting to the roots of why black means something lowly, and white means dominance. In the climax scene of Kaala the blue, black and red coming together was my statement: Ambedkarism (blue) and the ideologies of both Periyaar (black) and the Left (red) need to converge to defeat oppressive regimes.
In Kabali and perhaps for the first time in mainstream Tamil cinema, there are images of Chinua Achebe and Malcolm X. Can the fight for racial justice still inspire anti-caste civil rights movements in India?
Caste and racial oppression have huge likenesses, though they don’t have entirely similar histories. Segregation is something I too had to live with as a child. Being banned from entering a shop through the main door, the owner handling my money only with a small stick, never letting me touch and test a toy before buying it.
There is so much to learn from black cultural production. From celebrating their blackness to speaking about issues that ravage their communities, they’ve done it well. They’ve made themselves towering figures within the mainstream. The impact of this cultural victory, especially in terms of music, is immense because it helps foster global solidarity. Today’s Black Lives Matter protests have international support, even white people are standing beside them.
If only caste resistance here could accomplish the same through culture, whether music or cinema.
A Black Lives Matter protest in the US. Photo: Reuters/Peter Nicholls
A repeated criticism of you is casting Rajinikanth to play a Dalit hero. In a state where cinema and politics are enmeshed this could have complex consequences, do you think?
I agree that once something is in the public space, there will be scrutiny regarding intentions and the effects it can have. In the case of superstar, he asked me what the story was and he liked it. To him, cinema is cinema. He’s completely dedicated to it as a vocation. For me, cinema is an opportunity to talk about changes that need to happen. He was supportive of what I wanted to speak about in the two films we did together. Certainly, there is no connection between his general politics and mine. Neither do I put them into my films. I haven’t compromised on my own ideological beliefs. I view him as a director’s actor. If he likes the story, he’ll work at it until the director is content.
The representation in Indian cinema of working class and Dalit characters as criminal is a concern you yourself have. Why then in Kabali and in Kaala, are the heroes gangsters?
No, in Kaala he’s not a gangster! The idea was to show someone asserting his right, by whatever means he could, against an aggressor. There are people like that in real life. I can’t accept that resisting oppression the way Kaala does makes him a gangster.
In Kabali, the story was about the history of Malay Tamils, from working in the colonial-era plantations as indentured labourers to current ethnic gangs and the Tamils’ relationship with the Chinese population. Even Madras has been called a gangster film, which isn’t true. Is everyone who stands up to violence done to them a gangster? If someone from a dominant community does the same, they’re a revolutionary. If an oppressed person does it, they’re rowdies. Well, society is responsible for that image.
You’ve announced your first Hindi film. A biopic on Birsa Munda. In your view, what is the current space in Bollywood like, when it comes to social justice?
I can see that there are some recent efforts to make films on these issues. Masaan is an example. Sairat is a film I like, but that’s Marathi. Article 15 has happened now. Let’s see how it works out. In my understanding, Bollywood is very capitalist. They make movies on what will sell. To try and move away from that, towards focusing on what the people face, needs to happen. There is a slow inclination towards that now.
Filmmakers who’ve influenced you?
Alejandro González Iñárritu who made Birdman, The Revenant, Amores Perros amongst others. I love how he captures the range of human emotions. There is also a degree of spiritualism in his films, which are his beliefs of course.
Aside from him, I love the films of Andrei Tarkovsky and Spike Lee.
Bharathy Singaravel is a culture reporter and interested in the overlaps between Tamil cinema, protest music and politics.
