Tamil Assembly elections 2021

‘BJP Trojan Horse’, ‘Left Winger’: Vagueness at the Heart of Kamal Haasan’s Politics

Despite the fact that his party, Makkal Needhi Maiam, is poised to garner 20% of the vote, making it a force to reckon with, Kamal Haasan’s inconsistent ideology could play a spoilsport.

In the Tamil film world, the term “get up” refers to the persona an actor assumes in a particular movie. Get up is the look and the feel the actor is projecting in that film and is often buttressed by a novel costume.

Every new Haasan movie brings with it a certain curiosity, if not excitement, over his “get up” in that film. If he cross-dressed in one, he would play a dwarf in another. In the next movie, he would assume 10 avatars – 10 different get ups in one film. In the first assembly election it is contesting, Haasan’s party, Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM), seems to be seeking a ‘bit player’ get up, aspiring for the spoiler tag.

Though Tamil Nadu electoral politics is dominated by two fronts, there is always room for ‘bit players’ who together poll one in five votes typically. These parties attract voters who are dissatisfied with the DMK and the AIADMK fronts and are seeking an alternative. Some of them are caste-based, too.

The 2019 Lok Sabha elections showed that MNM was a serious contender for those 20% votes. In 2019, MNM candidates polled more than 10% of the votes in Chennai Lok Sabha constituencies as well as in Coimbatore city. In Madurai city, the MNM candidate clocked some 8% while his colleagues were noticed by voters in other urban constituencies like Tiruppur, Tiruchi and so on.

For 2021, Haasan has teamed up with two minor outfits with little electoral pull for practical reasons. The MNM is contesting in two-thirds of the assembly seats this time, largely in urban areas, while the rest have been left for his allies – the Indhiya Jananayaga Katchi (IJK) and Samathuva Makkal Katchi (SMK).

Also read: Can Kamal Haasan Really Make a Difference in Tamil Nadu Politics?

The IJK is headed by education baron T.R. Pachamuthu, aka Parivendar, while SMK, led by fellow actor Sarath Kumar, seeks to represent the prosperous Nadar community. At best, Haasan’s strategy may help him stay relevant in the future if voter identification with the Dravidian parties weakens. But that would require tremendous staying power and dedication to politics that he has not yet demonstrated.

Source of cash

Parivendar is the founder of the cash-rich SRM group of institutions that has spawned several for-profit companies in the information technology, healthcare, transport and media sectors. Parivendar was elected on a DMK ticket in 2019, but his political loyalties are not permanent. In 2014, he contested as an NDA candidate and lost.

Indhiya Jananayaga Katchi president T.R. Parivendar (L) and Samathuva Makkal Katchi president Sarath Kumar (R). Photo: Facebook.

Parivendar is among the few who made a smart move in the 1980s when the AIADMK government headed by M.G. Ramachandran opened up professional education to private players. Moving away from the pre-university system, the government beefed up lab facilities in its schools and introduced higher secondary education in them. This meant those finishing Class X could continue their studies in local schools and then aspire for college education while earlier the prospects of doing PUC in fewer colleges halted their progress.

For Tamil Nadu’s baby boomers who had benefited from the Dravidian parties’ commitment to widening education among the masses and job quotas for OBC youth, engineering and medical education promised a leap into prosperity. The opportunities came at a price though – hefty capitation fees.

Also read: BJP’s Electoral Strategy for Tamil Nadu in 2021 is the De-Dravidisation of State Politics

MGR’s lieutenants were among the early movers in this field, setting up professional colleges that today are mega institutions in the state. Some of the education barons continue to play political roles that support their business interests.

DMK sources say Parivendar is angling for a ministerial position in the Modi government. And backing Haasan is a sure way to cozy up with the BJP since Haasan, who claims to have been inspired by Dravidian movement founder Periyar, can cut into DMK votes. In the Chepauk constituency in Chennai that has a substantial Muslim population, for instance, Haasan has put up a strong Muslim candidate who can eat into DMK votes even as the AIADMK front gave the seat to the PMK, which is a lightweight in Chennai. DMK president M.K. Stalin’s son, Udayanidhi Stalin, is contesting in Chepauk.

Inconsistent ideology

Ever since he started MNM, Haasan has been in the DMK’s cross-hairs. While many see Haasan as a Left-winger with Dravidian sympathies out to prevent urban middle-class votes from going to the BJP, Dravidianists have trolled him on social media, pointing to his caste origins and reading motives into his tweets and statements.

They see him as the BJP’s Trojan horse in Tamil Nadu. His defence of the controversial vice-chancellor of the state’s engineering university, a BJP appointee, showed his true colours, they said. Haasan is a Brahmin, and in Tamil Nadu politics that is baggage.

For his part, Haasan has kept his politics sufficiently vague. He criticises Dravidian corruption and pitches for non-professional politicians. It’s a slant that can attract urban middle-class interest.

Actor and Makkal Needhi Maiyam (MNM) president Kamal Haasan poses for photographs with his party candidates during a press conference, ahead of Tamil Nadu assembly polls, in Chennai, Wednesday, March 10, 2021. Photo: PTI.

Haasan’s tweets and videos are a troll’s delight, though. His views and ideas are delivered in classical Tamil and that, in and of itself, can be amusing.

Tamil, like Arabic, has two distinct forms – spoken and written. Tamil poetry is ancient while prose has a relatively recent history. Few people speak publicly in formal, written Tamil but Kamal has made it his trademark.

Also read: Kamal Haasan Will Contest Tamil Nadu Assembly Elections from Coimbatore South

While Haasan appears to consider issues from various angles and be nuanced, critics find his style a case of deliberate obfuscation. Haasan publicly spoke against the rise of communalism in the 1990s and met then prime minister Narasimha Rao to discuss his concerns after the Babri Masjid was demolished. But his movie Hey Ram while standing for Gandhian ideals, seemed to rationalise the actions of the Hindu fanatic.

More recently, he supported Anupam Kher’s counter-campaign against ‘award wapsi’, in which a number of cultural and literary personalities returned their awards in protest against rising incidents of intolerance. His latest movies were about Islamist terrorism. Haasan’s inner circle continues to defend him, however, saying he is speaking from his heart what he considers to be the truth – even if that makes him inconsistent.

For Tamils, Haasan is the thinking actor, breaking new ground with his stories and acting. Though not formally schooled, Haasan is Tamil cinema’s intellectual heavyweight. He represents the ‘classes’ while Rajinikanth’s appeal is to the ‘masses’.

The Kamal-Rajini dialectic is not new. Before them were M.G. Ramachandran and Sivaji Ganesan. MGR was not particularly talented as an actor, but he was tremendously popular. People believed his heroic screen image and took it for real. The DMK helped to create the MGR persona and it stayed in the people’s minds until the end of his life, even after he formed the AIADMK.

Sivaji was the artist. He set standards in Tamil film acting though his theatrical style and histrionics are passé and have long been ridiculed for its excess. But, in his time, Sivaji was the epitome of film acting. His funeral was well attended and demonstrated nostalgia-driven respect for a legendary actor.

Sivaji was a flop in politics, however. Originally with the DMK, he moved to the Congress and later made a serious effort in electoral politics after MGR’s death. But Tamil voters did not accept him as a political leader. His first love was movies and politics seemed to be secondary to him.

In the mind of the electorate, Sivaji’s place was the movies where he could play hero, villain, comedian, drunkard, Karna of Mahabharata, and a middle-aged man with a shrewish wife seeking romance. Tamils loved his versatility. But, as a person, Sivaji did not have it in him, as far as Tamil voters were concerned. They didn’t take his politics seriously, nor did he command the political loyalty of the masses.

In Sivaji’s political career are warning signs for Haasan.

M. Kalyanaraman is a print and broadcast journalist based in Chennai.

In the Rise and Fall of Vijayakanth in Tamil Politics, Rajinikanth Has a Lesson

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.

Also read: Will Rajinikanth’s Charisma and Style Work in Politics, Too?

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.

Also read: Is Rajinikanth Really the Change Tamil Nadu’s Politics Needs?

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.

Also read: Rajinikanth Distances Himself From BJP

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.