In the past fortnight, rabid anti-DMK and pro-Jayalalitha section of the media went to town giving widest publicity to the diatribes of an otherwise insignificant and obscure Congressman against the DMK government, Party and Chief Minister Kalaignar. Decoyed by the publicity he gets, the publicity-crazy person concerned is also enthusiastically offering himself as a prey to their designs. Having met with very little success in their sustained campaign against the DMK and its government and promote the fortunes of Jayalalitha, this section of the media, with vested interest, has now launched a campaign to create a wedge between the DMK and Congress in order to weaken the strong alliance between the two and lobby for an alliance of the later with the ADMK. The pronounced among this section of the media are, a bilingual newspaper group and a Tamil magazine group.
The person they are banking upon for their ‘mission’ is none but EVKS Elangovan, an ever inconsistent demagogue, who could not win the election from his constituency in his own native district, despite being a Minister of State in the UPA-I government at the Centre; that is the level of popularity he enjoys among his own electorate. But for this Jayalalitha-lobbyist press even a crumb that could harm the DMK-Congress alliance is of immense value.
It is worth recalling the bitter experience of the former ADMK Minister late S.D.Somasundaram who was unduly projected by a section of the media when he broke with MGR in the early 1980’s and floated his own outfit. Misled by the publicity he was given, he fielded his outfit’s candidates in all the 234 Assembly constituencies and lost deposits in all. In a press meet after the elections, when he said in vexation that he was misled by the media projection, a senior reporter of an English daily clarified him that any fissure in a political party or an alliance was a celebration time for newspapers, who would bring the disgruntled person to the centre of the road and leave him there to fend for himself. That was the same experience of thespian Sivaji Ganesan who ventured in politics with his own outfit in 1989. The moral of the episodes is ‘Don’t get misled by media-boosting.’
The DMK leadership as well as the rank and file were maintaining extraordinary patience in the face of grave provocations in the interests of the alliance at the Central and State levels, thereby unyielding to the designs of agent provocateurs out to destabilize the DMK-Congress alliance. But people have to be clarified on misinformation emanated on a daily basis by Elangovan, like a frog emitting its eggs and hatching none, and feeding fodder to the slander-mill of the media. He never sticks on to his points of criticism and switches over to some other when his folly is laid bare.
For instance, while speaking in a public meeting Elangovan said that the Centre was paying a subsidy of Rs.7 for a kg of rice that was being sold in Tamil Nadu for one rupee and the DMK could not take credit for it. The fact is that the Centre is procuring rice at Rs.12.06 per kg. and allocates to States for Public Distribution System (PDS) for Rs.5.65 a kg. thereby paying a subsidy of Rs.6.41 per kg. Buying rice at Rs.5.65 a kg from the Central pool, the State government is distributing at one rupee a kg., paying a subsidy of Rs.5.10 per kg. (including transportation charges). While the Centre is paying a food subsidy of Rs.13,132.47 per annum (for all states), Tamil Nadu alone is paying Rs.3,750 crore per annum for food subsidy. From these figures it can be seen that both Centre and State are paying subsidies for PDS rice, but that of Tamil Nadu is the highest among all other states, including those ruled by the Congress. In no other state it is sold at One rupee a kg. When this was made clear, Elangovan still persisted with his statement and maintained that Centre was also paying subsidy. Nobody denied it but he refused to see that only Tamil Nadu was selling rice at the cheapest rate.
He made another statement that it was Kamarajar who introduced Noon Meal Scheme against all round opposition, paying a heavy cost of Rs.100 crore in the budget. Kalaignar not only acknowledged the great contribution of Kamarajar for the field of education and made the leader’s birthday to be celebrated throughout the State as ‘Education Development Day’ a law had also been enacted for the day’s observance in the future by all governments. But Elangovan should not give wrong informations. If the scheme is seen historically, it was first introduced in a limited scale confined to Madras city alone, in 1920s by the then Justice Party government. But the Dravidian movement was not narrow minded to under estimate Kamarajar’s great role.
The entire annual budget estimate of the State in the year 1954-55 when Kamarajar assumed office as Chief Minister was only Rs.47.15 crore and when demitted office in 1962-63 it was Rs.121.81 crore. When it was so, where from could Rs.100 crore be provided for this one scheme alone? In fact Kamarajar conceived this scheme in a spur of moment while addressing a Teachers’ conference at the Memorial Hall in Madras in 1958. Then he asked the then Director of School Education late N.D.Sundaravadivelu as to how much the government might have to spend for providing mid-day meal to school children of poor families. Within a few minutes Sundaravadivelu told the leader that there were 16 lakh children in school out of whom 5 lakh might require free mid-day meal which would cost the exchequer Rs.One crore per year at the cost of 10 paise (1 ½ anna) per child per day. That was how the scheme was formulated. Moreover, in order that parents also partake in the proper implementation of the scheme, Kamarajar said the State government would contribute one anna (6 paise) per child and the parents should contribute their share for half anna (3-4 paise). Now the scheme is enlarged manifold covering 69 lakh children and students with a provision of Rs.924 crore in 2010-11 and an additional amount of Rs.178 crore for providing three eggs per week. So, Elangovan should not distort history to suit his fancy.
Another charge made by him was that the rulers were only interested in promoting the political prospects of their family members and hastened to add mischievously that he was only referring to Punjab. Of all the persons saying this is like pot calling the kettle black. His father was an MP and mother the chairperson of State Slum Clearance Board and Textbook Society. He himself was an MLA, MP and also Union Minister of State. His brother EVKS Iniayan Sampath is in Congress Party and son EVR Thirumagan is in Youth Congress, both likely to get posts in future.
Reacting to Elangovan’s speech in which he accused the DMK government of claiming credit for Union government funded programmes, Chief Minister Kalaignar explained that the Congress leader had confused the Kalaignar Housing Scheme, a State scheme, with Indira Awaas Yojna (IAY), a Central scheme (see CM’s statement on P.No.7 in this issue). Kalaignar regretted that Elangovan’s observations against the DMK government would not strengthen the DMK-Congress alliance but would strain it. On the very same day of Kalaignar’s statement published in newspapers, TNCC President Thiru K.V.Thankgabalu directed Congress functionaries not to make any statements in public meetings that would strain the alliance and that only AICC President Tmt. Sonia Gandhi was authorized to decide on the alliance.
But the directions of TNCC President or the sane advices of his party colleagues seem to have no bearing on the headstrong person. Reacting to Kalaignar’s statement on the same day ‘an unrelenting’ Elangovan told TOI (Times of India) “The alliance will get weakened if the Congressmen are unhappy. We will be happy only if the grievances of the people of Tamil Nadu are redressed. The hike in power tariff should be rolled back and like the Delhi government, the duty on fuel should be reduced.”
Here also Elangovan misleads because Delhi state government is a union territory with a lot of grants paid by the Centre unlike full-fledged states like Tamil Nadu. In fact the VAT on diesel was increased from 12.5 percent to 20 percent in April this year in Delhi and sold at Rs.38.10 per litre when the same was available at Rs.34.75 in neighbouring Haryana, a few km. away. So the fuel bunk operators threatened to close down outlets because vehicles fetched fuel from Haryana and their sales went down terribly. The government was forced to restore the old VAT rate. When Elangovan conveniently quotes Delhi why not he cite other state governments led by his party?
The likes of Elangovan need not go back to the past to learn decent and responsible conduct of an alliance partner. The speeches made by DMK members of Parliament, Thiru T.R.Baalu and Thiru T.M.Selvaganapathy last week in the debate on price rise in both Houses, will exemplify the attitude that one must have in an alliance. They defended the UPA government on price increase of Petroleum products even while suggesting measures to lessen its impact on common man. Unlike some other constituent parties of the UPA, the alliance of the DMK with the Congress is wholehearted, sincere and above board. It does not play hide and seek between the opposition and government. Nor does it run with the hare and hunt with the hound. Time and again UPA Chairperson Tmt. Sonia Gandhi, Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh and responsible senior Union Ministers like Thiru Pranab Mukherjee have gone on record hailing the guiding spirit of Kalaignar and the performance of his government.
But expectedly newspapers have started reporting as the daily ‘Deccan Chronicle’ in its issue on August 10 has: “However, Congress leader Elangovan’s repeated salvos at the DMK in recent days has made many wonder, even within his own state party unit, if he has the tacit approval of the Congress bosses in Delhi to hit at the Dravidian ally if only to extract more number of seats for the state polls.” Now, it is for the AICC leadership to clear the air.
If only number of seats is a question, Kalaignar’s large-heartedness and spirit of accommodation is an established fact during the seat sharing exercise for the 2006 Assembly polls. After allocation of seats and agreements signed with alliance parties, the DMK was left with 24 seats earmarked for the MDMK, which at the eleventh hour deserted the alliance and switched over to ADMK camp. Kalaignar could as well retained the seats for the DMK, but even in the absence of any demand, he distributed all the 24 seats to allies. If only it had contested them on its own, it could have easily secured its own majority in the House.
In contrast, Jayalalitha in 2001 snubbed the Congress repeatedly and treated it with a long pole. Refusing to directly deal with Congress representatives, she signed an agreement with TMC leader G.K.Moopanar after 34 days of tough bargaining and the TMC leader allotted 15 seats to Congress from out of his allotment. Elangovan, who was the TNCC President then kept mum over all the humiliations meted out by Jayalalitha. She further insulted AICC President Tmt. Sonia Gandhi by making her wait in vain to address a joint public meeting with her at Villupuram and arrived only after Tmt. Sonia Gandhi left.
Last but not least, disruptors like Elangovan should ponder over whether the DMK
Former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, in 1971, declared Kalaignar as an unwavering and firm leader whether in alliance or in opposition. The DMK under his leadership had always played, acknowledgedly, a most constructive role in all alliance governments at the Centre – in the National Front government led by V.P.Singh in 1989-90, United Front government led by H.D.Deve Gowda and I.K.Gujral in 1996-98, National Democratic Alliance government led by A.B.Vajpayee in 1999-2003, and now in the UPA-I and UPA-II governments led by Dr. Manmohan Singh and guided by Tmt. Sonia Gandhi.
In contrast, within one year of his experience with Jayalalitha, an exasperated Vajpayee said ‘he made a blunder in his political life by joining hands with her’ and vouched never again to repeat it in the rest of his life.
The DMK was, is and will be a time-tested and trustworthy ally!
No comments:
Post a Comment