Once again the history of the DMK has been established.
Threats of prolonged imprisonment and harassment failed to deter but enthused
the spirited rank and file of the Party, who with verve and vigour offered to
court arrest on July 4, in response to the ‘Jail Bharo’ stir call given by the
Executive Committee of the Party on June 20.
Two lakh 32 thousand 797 DMK men and women in all districts
in Tamil Nadu courted arrest on the day. As Kalaignar said the response to the
call was more than expected and it was a massive participation of spirited DMK
cadre. They tried to bring down the number of participants in the agitation by
threatening of 15 days remand, and lodging in prisons in other states. But none
were frightened or worried. Every participant had given signed undertakings
that they would not seek bail.
The DMK did not seek the stir but it sought the Party. This
agitation was not created by the Party impelled by the opposition to the
regime, but thrust upon the Party by the rulers. This ADMK regime is a
repository of falsehood and deceit. The invocation of Goondas Act against
respectable DMK functionaries including senior District Secretary Veerapandi
Arumugam was a direct attack on the dignity and prestige of the DMK. It was a
struggle to defend the self-respect and reputation of the over-six decades old
movement. In the history of the Party, the leaders and workers never got
frightened by prisons.
It was in 1938 that Party founder Arignar Anna was first
imprisoned in the anti-Hindi agitation. He was sentenced for six months
imprisonment. When journalists asked him about his feeling on going to prison
for the first time in his public life, Anna said, he was as delighted as a
married young woman on her first conceiving.
During the spontaneous Anti-Hindi agitation of students in
1965, the State government accused Kalaignar of instigating it and lodged him
in solitary confinement in Palayamkottai prison. After visiting Kalaignar in
the prison Anna said in a public meeting there, “If at all there is a holy
shrine for the DMK, it will be Palayamkottai prison where my younger brother
Karunanidhi is lodged.” Not only in the history of India but in the history of
the world, only the DMK has the history of calling prison as holy shrine. Only
the DMK has that reputation.
During the Emergency period in 1975-76, over 500 DMK
functionaries and workers were detained in various prisons in Tamil Nadu under
Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA), which earned them the surname
‘MISA’. The Party functionaries lodged in Chennai Central prison were brutally
attacked inside their cells in which former Chennai Mayor Chittibabu succumbed
to injuries, caused in his bid to save young and newly wed M.K.Stalin from
attacks.
It was in prison that DMK men were first sworn in as
Ministers. Kalaignar led the stir for naming Dalmiapuram railway station as
‘Kallakudi’ by stopping the train by laying his head on the rails along with
Sakthi, Kasthuri, Kumaravel and Kulandaivel. Over 400 were arrested and lodged
in Tiruchi prison. Kalaignar was prisoner No.5779 in that jail. The food
supplied and hygienic conditions in the prison were awfully bad. Kalaignar,
then, constituted a ‘Ministry’ in the prison. In fact, that was the first Ministry
formed by Kalaignar. The portfolios allotted to the Ministers in the cabinet
formed by Kalaignar in Tiruchi prison were:
Food
Minister : Raama Subbiah
Home
Minister : Mullai Sakthi
Health
Minister : Buhari Sahib
Local
body Minister : Aiyavanallur Velu
Chief Secretary : Venugopal
It is this Kalaignar, who even celebrated and enjoyed
imprisonment, who now gave the call for ‘Fill the Jail’ agitation to DMK rank
and file.
Writing in Murasoli on July 2, Kalaignar said that though he
was not enlisted to take part in the agitation, his heart and soul would be
with those who were jailed.
“It’s my desire to be part of the peaceful jail bharo
agitation. I am not used to assigning someone else and keep off even from a
protest meeting. I participate in all the protests and have often been sent
off, but never been the one to send others off,” he said.
Asking the cadres to teach a lesson to the ruling party, he
said that senior leaders should coordinate and work unitedly to make the
agitation a great success.
Immediately after the executive committee meeting, Party
district secretaries convened meetings of functionaries at all levels and
decided upon the places of picketing and those who would lead in every point.
All these reports were published district wise in ‘Murasoli’. There are 35
districts (including city districts), 385 panchayat unions, 586 townships and
125 towns, in which lists of volunteers to court arrest were prepared and also
wardwise lists for nearly one lakh wards in Tamil Nadu were prepared. In Chennai,
there are 200 wards and picketing were held in 16 points.
Public meetings and street corner meetings to explain the
resolution of the Executive Committee’s meeting were held in all districts in
which DMK Headquarters functionaries, former Ministers, MPs, MLAs and
Headquarters speakers addressed. Kalaignar addressed the meeting on July 1 at
Tambaram.
Former Ministers, DMK frontliners, functionaries, MPs and
MLAs, representatives of local bodies and volunteers numbering over one lakh
registered their names for participation in the stir. In total there are 9
central prisons and 134 sub-jails are there in Tamil Nadu in which upto 25,000
prisoners can be accommodated. Already there were 18,000 inmates in the prison
and additionally only 8,000 can be accommodated. There are facilities for food,
drinking water, medical facilities and hygiene and toilets only for 25,000
inmates, beyond which prison authorities could not fulfill the requirements.
The State government was in a quandary as there was no
provision in law for converting and detain prisoners in halls, community
centres etc, outside. In that case, basic facilities like food, drinking water,
medicine and toilets could not be arranged where Human Rights Commission will
have to intervene. Moreover there were no sufficient prison guards to protect
them and there was no provision for utilizing local police for protection of
the detained.
For the DMK neither agitations, nor arrests and
imprisonments are not new. Its functionaries and cadre had faced detentions
under MISA, TADA, POTA and Goondas Act and undergone convictions.
Kalaignar repeatedly stated that this agitation was not only
against the suppressive measure of the ADMK regime but also against its
anti-people measure and aimed at putting an end to the sufferings of the
people.
As the Party Treasurer Thalapathi M.K.Stalin said the reason
for such an uprising among the rank and file of the Party was not the DMK, but
the ruling ADMK, the police in the service of ruling party and some newspapers
eulogosing the rulers. Because they carried out hectic campaign in the past one
week than the DMK. That should serve as a lesson to the ruling party and its
sub-servient sections of the media – the DMK will rise like the ball which
rises above the more it is hit.
To a cynical question of an ‘enlightened’ English media
reporter whether the agitation had also provided an opportunity for the DMK for
soul searching as many DMK leaders “went too far” in their activities when the
party was in power, Rajya Sabha member Tmt. Kanimozhi correctly said, “It is
not a moment for soul searching for the DMK but it is time for soul searching
by the press and public”, who by harping on the past either refuse or
conveniently ignore to see the horrendous regime in Tamil Nadu now and the sufferings
of the people.
Whether we can expect any change in the attitude of
Jayalalitha or not, the DMK agitation has definitely taught a lesson to her and
also to the servile media!
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