Commentary/Mani Shankar Aiyar
Subjected to TMC bullying, the shell-shocked Congress worker knows he must bestir himself or perish
Yet another colleague thinks the people are so tired of politicians
promises of settling the 22-year-old Cauvery dispute that they
are resigned to the point of indifference. Perhaps too they wonder
-- albeit with neither hope nor expectation -- whether Karunanidhi
and Patel can pull off a miracle and are resigned to wait for
that unbelieved-in dawn to break.
Having, however, been so recently a victim myself of my constituents's
ability to keep their counsel to themselves, I am not sure that
the apparent resignation of the voter shows him to be as sanguine
as he seems. If the miracle comes off, the miracle-maker will
be rewarded. But if it does not -- and miracles are, after all,
a myth -- those who stoked false optimism will be punished.
The fact is that for all the sugarcane grown, much more of the land
is under water-starved paddy than cane, and for every farm labourer
who finds work in a Quilon cashewnut factory, there are at least
a hundred others begging for work on the withering farmlands of
the Cauvery delta. The people, I think, are ready to give Karunanidhi-Moopanar
a chance, but if instead of getting water in the Cauvery, Karunanidhi
contents himself with bissibelihulla in Bangalore, he and his
desk-thumping friends in the TMC will be in for a stern reckoning.
There is also the resentment of the Congress cadres to reckon
with at the intimidation, browbeating and physical manhandling
they have been subjected to by the TMC with the DMK's active collaboration.
Not only are they in wholly illegal occupation of Satyamurthy
Bhavan, the headquarters in Chennai of the Congress party, they
have invaded several other such offices, with violence and arson
reaching a pitch in Cuddalore and Thanjavur.
Ironically, the very
Krishaswamy Vandayar who was responsible for inducting the Moopanars
into the Congress from their natural perch in the anti-Independence,
anti-brahmin Justice Party has had to suffer the posthumous ignominy
of Moopanar's supporters throwing his framed memorial picture
out of the Thanjavur office and stamped upon as the goons of the
TMC stomp around in a victory dance.
Since I have but recently been subjected to the non-Gandhian attentions
of Moopanar's men during Salman Khurshid's visit to my constituency
last February, I am not startled at this vandalism. But I begin
to understand what Moopanar means by his strange remark that even
the Dravidian parties can usher in 'Kamaraj Rule'. The
ingredient lacking apparently was an insufficient reliance on
violence by the old Congress.
Now that the DMK can teach the TMC
the trick it learned from the LTTE, the last remaining restraints
on rowdythanam as it is known in Tamil stand
removed. We are going to court. I trust judicial activism will
be in evidence when we are the victim. The political point is
that subjected to TMC bullying, the otherwise shell-shocked Congress
worker knows he must bestir himself or perish.
For such small mercies we should be grateful to Moopanar's men.
They might yet help to revive the Indian National Congress in
Tamil Nadu!
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