A political development of unsure consequences that gained traction in the popular imagination last week was the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi( VCK), which is an alliance partner of the ruling DMK in Tamil Nadu, suspending one of its deputy general secretaries, Aadhav Arjuna, for six months. Political parties do crackdown on functionaries and leaders whom they feel have erred on some count or the other or had done something detrimental to its growth and reputation or agitated against its ideology or policy or principle but the latest action on Arjuna was different and unusual.
For one, Arjuna, who was given the plum post in the party less than a year ago, had grown phenomenally in stature and importance in the political arena and seen as a no holds barred political activist plowing a lonely furrow, independent of the path the party was taking, by making several statements that repeatedly rocked the coalition boat. He was sending across the message that it was the DMK that needed the support of the VCK to win elections and not the other way round. Of course he has the right to his political perception that too when he prides himself as an election strategist.
But how much was he right in perceiving that the 75-year-old DMK that had ruled the State multiple times was now dependent on the relatively younger VCK that is yet to gain recognition as a State party for its electoral victories is something for leaders of both the parties involved and voters to decide. Yet he tried to drive home the point through statistics, data and analysis. Perhaps he believed in it seriously.
Whatever, none of the senior long-time leaders and activists of the VCK, which was an offshoot of the Dalit Panthers of India, seemed to concur with the young leader, who walked into the party and even mainstream politics quite recently. However, they refrained from washing dirty linen in public but perhaps put pressure on the party leadership in private.
The DMK was anyway not pleased with an emerging leader of an alliance party openly challenging its supremacy and found him to be a thorn in the flesh of the alliance. But with a put up flamboyance and the inherent confidence of the wealthy class, Arjuna aspired, or at least he made others believe that he wanted to rewrite the political history of Tamil Nadu. Since the State that first went into the hands of the DMK in 1967 was unable to come out of ‘Dravidian hold,’ the new kid on the block was hopeful of changing the trend through his strategy.
Whether he was aware of the reasons for the DMK or rather the Dravidian parties having a firm foothold in the State’s political terra firma for such a long time even after the nation’s political thinking changed from the time the DMK first captured power or not, he believed in changing the people’s voting pattern or rather political preferences through digital campaigns. Or at least that was what he conveyed to his party and the others through his averments – yes he started giving interviews on his own. His actions also gave rise to the speculation in the media that the alliance between the DMK and VCK might break.
It was in that background that the book launch organized by a Tamil magazine group came about. Arjuna had a role in putting together the content for the book and was a star speaker at the event. But since the man who would be releasing the book was actor Vijay, who had recently launched his new party, the Tamizhaga Vetri Kazhagam, it gave an opportunity for the media to jump in a frenzy over the speculated split between the DMK and VCK.
They said VCK president Thol Thirumavalavan would be attending the book release and sharing the stage with Vijay. That the book was on B R Ambedkar gave some credence to the rumours. However, Thirumavalavan clarified that when he had agreed to attend the event, Vijay had not launched his political party. Now that Vijay was the president of a political party that had declared the DMK as the political rival he would take a final call on attending the book release event after talking to his party colleagues.
Yet self-styled political activists operating through social media wanted Thirumavalavan to attend the event because the book was on Ambedkar. Though their wishes did not come true, Arjuna was there, along with Vijay for whom that was his second public appearance as president of TVK. Both Arjuna and Vijay, however, did not bother to speak about the book that was released or about Ambekar, leaving that responsibility to the other speakers with intellectual orientation. Arjuna and Vijay made use of the opportunity to hit out at the DMK vehemently.
Of course Vijay has to overrun the DMK for his political survival but can Arjuna share the same dream as a member of VCK that was in an alliance with the DMK? But what caused deep concern in the entire episode was a media group using a book release to try and change the State’s political dynamics by playing a covert role in trying to hook up a new political party with an established one and a newbie politician from a wealthy background using the name of Ambedkar to realize his personal dream of defeating the ruling party.