There is a certain irony to the tragedy of the AIADMK; it’s facing an identity crisis on the 100th birthday of its iconic founder MGR alias MG Ramachandran. Such was the charisma that MGR that he became a Dravidian icon despite being a Keralite. His actual name was MG Ramachandra Menon. He landed from Kerala to test his fortunes in Madras, now known as Chennai, in films. Incidentally, all of MGR’s famous films were scripted by none other than DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi.
Tamil Nadu’s Dravidian movement piggybacked on films and film personalities and totally captured the Dravidian movement after the death of Chief Minister CN Annadurai. Hence the politics of the State always witnessed situations of melodrama, tragedy and comedy. Karunanidhi became Chief Minister and he started sidelining party treasurer and star campaigner MGR by the early 70s.
The friends turned foes soon after script-writer Chief Minister started plotting stardom for his elder son Muthu. Obviously this was the last straw for MGR and he began his revolt. This is something on which most veteran Tamil Nadu political analysts are in agreement. Finally, MGR was sacked from the DMK, and he floated his new outfit, the AIADMK. MGR began exposing corruption scams of Karunanidhi. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was looking for a chance to break the DMK’s hegemony in the State. Karunanidhi’s Government was dismissed and the Justice Sarkaria Commission appointed during the Emergency to probe into the alleged graft of Karunanidhi, based on the complaints by MGR.
like a shrewd politician, Karunanidhi bought peace with Indira Gandhi and was saved from actions on the findings of the Sarkaria Commission, which described him as an expert in “scientific corruption”. The next State election saw MGR became Chief Minister in 1977 — a post which he continued till his death in 1987. Those days, people say, MGR showed flexibility towards Karunanidhi in the latter’s bid to be elected as an MlA and maintain his post as an Opposition leader. Several retired civil servants, who were the District Collectors of Karunanidhi’s constituency, said similar considerations were extended by MGR during the polling and counting processes.
But this bonhomie was not in evidence between Karunanidhi and J Jayalalithaa. After MGR’s death, she was humiliated and his wife Janaki Ramachandran tried to control the party. But due to strategic decisions of then Congress president Rajiv Gandhi, the alliance partner, the Congress rallied behind Jayalalithaa and Janaki was marched off to political oblivion. So MGR’s charisma was maintained by Jayalalithaa who was one of his favourite heroines in films. But with a difference — except in the 2016 Assembly election, she always lost the election after coming to power.
Karunanidhi and Jayalalithaa were political enemies in the real and most vicious sense. There is no photograph even available of them in a common frame. Whenever Jayalalithaa was in power, Karunanidhi avoided going to Assembly. He always feared her vow to pay Karunanidhi back in the same coin, when she was manhandled by DMK MlAs and thrown out of the Assembly in 1990. Many AIADMK women MlAs also those days took the pledge that they would handle Karunanidhi in the same way. So Karunanidhi never came to the Assembly whenever Jayalalithaa was in power. He came once in six months to put his signature to maintain his MlAship and left soon after completing that task. Just before general elections, sometimes he resigned from the MlA’s post well in advance and issued some lengthy statements protesting against the ‘tyranny’ of Jayalalithaa in the House. But his successor MK Stalin was diplomatic with Jayalalithaa. She too was enjoying the succession war in Karunanidhi’s clan.
Such was the rivalry between Karunanidhi and Jayalalithaa, which originated from the film industry and spread to politics and finally led to those ugly scenes in the Assembly and the midnight arrest of Karunanidhi in 2000. Nowhere in Indian politics had such a personal rivalry existed.
She ensured the end of Karunanidhi in politics in 2011. With the unexpected second time victory in 2016, she almost nailed the DMK. Jayalalithaa had massive plans to celebrate the 100th anniversary of MGR in 2017. She was confident after the unexpected resumption of power following 2016 the Assembly election.
But after her untimely death, her party is at a crossroads. Jayalalithaa left the world without any inheritor. Meanwhile, DMK’s Stalin is emerging with no challengers. It is only a matter of time. Most of the MlAs of AIADMK are at the beck and call of Stalin, who is eagerly waiting to exploit the chaos in the AIADMK. The AIADMK has already shunted the Sasikala clan from the party to avoid being further weakened.
Tamil Nadu’s politics has been based on charisma, and there is a void because none of the present leaders has the MGR/Jayalalithaa kind of appeal and emotional connect. It appears that the film the AIADMK is expected to show has reached ‘The End’.