It’s unfair to prejudge the superstar. He has the ability to be a successful politician
It is not unusual for superstar Rajinikanth (affectionately called Rajni or Thalaiva by the legion of his fans to come out with occasional enigmatic utterances on his entry into politics.
Will it be possible for him to liberate the people of Tamil Nadu from the clutches of two Dravidian parties ruling the State for the past half a centuryIJ This is the question haunting every well-meaning citizen of the State. During the past fortnight, he has made it amply clear that he is not averse to jumping into the fray.
During the five-day long meeting with his fans at Raghavendra Kalayanamandpam in Chennai, Rajinikanth made two important observations. First and foremost: “Today god wants me to be an actor.Tomorrow what he wants me to be, I don’t know.”
The second one was: “There are a number of efficient leaders in Tamil Nadu. But the system is rotten and it has got to be set right.”
Since his famous and most potent clarion call against the ‘corrupt’ AIADMK in the 1996 elections — “Even god won’t be able to save Tamil Nadu if Jayalalithaa were to be returned to power” — Rajinikanth has been maintaining a stoic silence over the goings-on in Tamil Nadu’s politics. This is despite some severe provocations and earnest appeals by a number of leaders. Even Prime Minister Narendra Modi is rumoured to have requested him to join politics.
Many political observers, me included, who have been watching Rajinikanth and also the rise and untimely demise of four-time Chief Minister and AIADMK supremo J Jayalalithaa, for the past more than three decades, feel it is the ideal time for the matinee idol to enter the arena.
There is a total leadership vacuum in the State with Jayalalithaa being laid to rest on the shores of Marina and the nonagenarian five-time Chief Minister and DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi being totally incapacitated — and thus virtually out of politics.
While the ruling party — the AIADMK — has split and the two factions are fighting for establishing which is the ‘true’ AIADMK, the major opposition party, the DMK, has only a ‘working president’. For reasons best known only to him, Karunanidhi has not handed over the party’s reins to his third son MK Stalin but anointed him only as the ‘working president’. It shows that he is still wary of the machinations of his second son MKAlagiri, who is biding his time in Madurai.
There are some who feel that no other film star except MG Ramachandran (MGR) could float a new party and flourish in the State. It is true that several others including Sivaji Ganesan, K Bagyaraj, T Rajendar and Sarathkumar tried and miserably failed. The DMDK, launched by film star Vijayakanth, is struggling to survive thanks to the ineptness of its leader. But Rajinikanth’s fan-following is virtually equal to that of MGR.
Dravidian parties have proved beyond doubt that they are incapable of providing a corruption-free Government. Rajinikanth has the ability to get the State out of this quagmire and launch it on the road to prosperity. n