When actor Vijayakanth
launched his ‘political party’ with much fanfare at his home town in Madurai in
September 2005, his innocent fans believed that another MGR was in the making
and their ‘captain’ was christened as ‘dark MGR’ (Karuppu MGR) who was destined
to rock the established political scenario in Tamil Nadu and emerge as the
undisputed leader of the state. Blowing hot and cold on the DMK and ADMK and
calling both as ‘corrupt parties’, he declared that his only objective was to
remove both the parties from the political mainstream of the state. Ridiculing
politics of alliance, he thundered that he would contest in the elections alone
and capture power. Having lost his fiefdom in the film world due to incompatible
growth of his physique that repelled leading young heroines from pairing with
him, he went on tour of Tamil Nadu and addressed wayside meetings from the open
van used by MGR thus projecting him as the ‘black avtar’ of the late matinee
idol.
He thundered film
dialogues which his naïve fans believed he would deliver it given a chance to
rule. So gullible was a fan who asked him in a public address whether he would
beat government employees who committed mistakes as he did in films. “Yes, I
will beat them in public view” thundered the celluloid hero! The thrilled fans
whistled in unison as they do in theatres.
When he faced the first
Assembly election in 2006, he fielded his candidates in all the 234 Assembly
constituencies. The media projected him as a credible alternative to both DMK
and ADMK. The ‘captain’ was also carried away by the media projection, little
knowing about political history of Tamil Nadu where media projects some new
comers, bring them to the centre of the road and then desert leaving him to
fend for himself. There are always political aspirants among the neo-rich and
those having some other influence in some pockets. But they cannot aspire to
get popular or come up by joining established political parties. For such
elements Vijayakanth’s outfit offered a bet for success. They took the risk
because they had nothing to lose and offered to contest elections as DMDK
candidates. Except the actor nobody else got elected from his party which
secured 8.33 percent votes by contesting from all the 234 constituencies but
the rest of the 233 candidates lost deposits. Still the media projected him as
the determining force in state politics which he also believed. But the 8.33
percent share of votes did not reflect Vijayakanth’s influence among the people.
For example, an Anglo Indian lady who had no connection whatsoever with the
actor or his outfit, was fielded as DMDK candidate in Purasawalkam constituency
in Chennai, in which about 40,000 Anglo Indians were living, among whom she was
a social activist. She secured 35,000 votes by her own influence. What does
Vijayakanth do with this? So, too was the case from Tambaram and Villiwakkam
constituencies, where two influential businessmen with caste-backing and
secured sizable votes by their individual influence. So it is an illusion to
believe that Vijayakanth commanded 8.33 percent or 10 percent (in 2009 LS
polls) support among the voters by his charisma.
The media was not unaware
of this truth, but wantonly pampered and projected Vijayakanth with a pre-conceived
due to by their antipathy for the DMK. Knowing fully well he was inconsistent,
incoherent and stupid, they gave wide coverage to all his babbles against the
DMK government and Kalaignar.
But as the Assembly
elections are fast approaching, the media, hostile to DMK, gave up projecting
Vijayakanth as an independent force to reckon with and started carrying him to
the lap of Jayalalitha implying both of them together will constitute a
formidable challenge to the DMK alliance. The sudden change of the attitude of
the media left the ‘captain’ nonplussed and he started making somersaults after
somersaults, from his original stand of no alliance with anybody and forming
government of his own, and then with god and then with those who accepted his
leadership. But the media’s indifference to all these heroics of him and
persistence for an alliance with the ADMK ‘opened’ the eyes of Vijayakanth to
the Machiavellian plot woven around him by the media with vested interests. But
it was too late for him to escape from the trap.
The celluloid hero had no
other option than to surrender and follow the path already laid leading to the
gates of ADMK headquarters office. The ‘tiger’ which roared that he would not
surrender political prestige for the sake of some seats is now standing at the
gates of ADMK office holding a bowl in his hands like Oliver in Charles Dickens’s
novel Oliver Twist. To add to his ignominy there were no invitations to him so
far from Jayalalitha’s side. So far she met leaders of communist parties, exchanged
views on alliance and then only seat sharing talks were held with the ADMK office
bearers. That was the case with other ADMK alliance parties like the MDMK. But
Vijayakanth’s party was not shown even that elementary courtesy. But his party
leaders suddenly rushing to ADMK office and holding talks with second line
leaders only showed their awful condition. He has thrown self-respect to winds
and dances to the tunes of others.
In Tamil films, we have
seen comedians donning the roles of politicians and performing heroics. But
when they face insulting situations, they will rub the disgrace aside and
deliver the dialogue “All these are usual in politics.” But here ‘hero’
Vijayakanth has also turned into a comedian and it won’t be a surprise if he
delivers the same dialogue. But his political adviser Panruti Ramachandran,
when asked about their earlier reiteration of alliance only with people or god,
has said ‘People’s voice is the voice of Almighty’ and that the people wanted
the DMK government to go. But after the 2006 Assembly elections, the DMK had
been victorious in all the 11 by-elections held till last year in Pennagaram
constituency and in the 2009 Lok Sabha election whereas the people inflicted
crushing defeat to the DMDK. In a democracy the voice of majority is akin to
the voice of the people. So by this logic the DMDK should have been disbanded
long back.
It is proverbially asked
‘Can the tiger shed its stripes? It can. Provided it is meek media-made tiger,
as Vijayakanth is!
No comments:
Post a Comment