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Tamil Nadu needs a social transformation
Former IAS officer MG Devasahayam dissects the May 16 elections to reveal a disturbing pattern of dependency and disenchantment
Chennai
Tamil Nadu election results are out and we all know who has won and who has lost. One recalls the famous words of Grantland Rice, the American sportswriter, ‘For when the one great scorer comes, to mark against your name, he writes — not that you won or lost — but how you played the game.’ The way political parties and candidates played the game, their score would be dismal!Â
From the beginning Tamil Nadu election was skewed with certain parties and candidates bribing voters with cash, gifts, coupons, liquor etc, instead of seeking votes on the basis of performance and policies. This forced the Election Commission of India (ECI) to deploy a massive force comprising of hundreds of general observers, police observers, expenditure observers, assistant expenditure observers, video surveillance teams, video viewing teams, accounting teams as well as mobile and static surveillance teams. These teams seized more the Rs. 105 crores of cash.
Certain political parties issued election manifestos with large number of fancy consumer items as freebies in defiance of Supreme Court judgment and ECI’s code of conduct. These promises vitiated the purity of the election process and exerted undue influence on the voters in exercising their franchise. These manifestos also did not reflect the rationale for the promises. Neither did they indicate the means to meet the financial requirements for the same as directed by the ECI.
In a belated response, Commission postponed election in Aravakurichi and Thanjavur constituencies and issued notices to two political parties on freebies in election manifestos. Unfortunately these remained only as cosmetic measures because ECI did not exercise the plenary powers conferred to it under the Constitution to countermand/cancel these elections and direct the political parties to remove the prohibited freebies from their election manifesto. Without bringing these two vital issues to closure ECI conducted the election, counted the votes and declared the results!Â
Be that as it may, let us look at the election result that has decimated all the parties/alliances who positioned themselves as alternative to the Dravidian duo. The main reasons are three-mushrooming of regional parties/alliances who have no identifiable ideology or governance policy; lack of credibility of these entities because of their earlier association/alliance with both the Dravidian parties and the collapse/inability of national parties-Congress, Communists, BJP who should have been the fulcrum for any such alternative.Â
As of now several factors hinder the prospects of a viable alternative to the Dravidian parties despite Tamil Nadu having plenty of burning issues that can inflame and mobilise the people:Â
- The last five-six decades of cinema/glamour/mendicant politics dished out by the Dravidian parties has drained out the ‘political sense’ from the elderly and the middle aged.Â
- Excessive serenading of ‘cinema celebrities’ has deprived politics/public life of quality and content. Media projects them as icons thereby influencing impressionable minds. Even ECI had joined the bandwagon!
- Intoxicating liquor vended by government owned TASMAC shops has made most poor and low-income group men as addicts incapable of rational thinking.
- Capture of educational institutions by political and other mafia as well as the fast expanding communication gadgets and digital applications have rendered large majority of college-going youth virtual robots and herd-followers.Â
- Large number of women mostly in the rural hinterland are engrossed with the 24/7 TV serials and the avalanche of freebies pouring on them.Â
- Extremely corrupted and skewed electoral process has destroyed the level playing field in elections scaring away good people from contesting.
- Most of the media playing second-fiddle to the powers-that-be and not espousing real issues and taking them to the common man.Â
- Paucity of resources compared to the well entrenched and cash rich DMK and AIADMK that makes it difficult for up and coming parties/ alliances to survive with staying power.Â
Furthermore, the Dravidian parties alternately wielding power for the last half century have groomed hard-core cadre with vested interests. Party membership gives them regular income even when out of power. When in power they get several opportunities to earn legally/illegally through contracts, land grab, resource loot, rent-seeking in government jobs and schools/ college admissions as well as sheer extortion with the police often turning a Nelson’s eye. Of late becoming a party cadre has become a job opportunity for unemployed/ unemployable educated youth who get paid in unaccounted cash.
Of national parties, Congress is a fringe player. BJP has not even made a start because the party has not understood Tamil Nadu and its people. Communists are ‘withering away’. Sum and substance is that in the present Tamil Nadu political landscape a viable and credible alternative to the Dravidian majors is a far cry. Does it mean it is end-of-the-road for majority of people, particularly the youth yearning for a change? Not at all if we look beyond patch-work alliances and cut-and-paste politics.Â
What is needed in Tamil Nadu is a compete breakaway from the past and present, with a social transformation to take the people out of the mendicant/ slavery mindset. From such transformation should evolve a new breed of democratic and participatory politics. For this to happen civil society and youth groups should coalesce and march forward with a distinct socio-economic agenda. A beginning has been made.Â
Next step is projecting the right leadership with right credentials at the right time. On this the churning is on and will be triggered further by post-poll convulsions in the ruling and opposition parties. God Willing, it may not be a long wait!
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