At 74, DMK has new battles to wage
CHENNAI: Three score and fourteen years ago on September 17, 1949, the DMK was founded. The following day, at its public launch, founder C N Annadurai (Anna) said their political father, the Dravidar Kazhagam’s 70-year-old E V Ramaswamy Periyar, was authoritarian and by marrying his aide Maniammai, less than half his age, had brought infamy to them. Nevertheless, he named Periyar the titular head, wished him a long life and said their aims were the same – a socialist garden where ‘Dravidam’ (an independent Dravida Nadu made of the south) would bloom. On July 27, 1947, Periyar had described the impending independence on August 15, 1947, as ‘British-Bania-Brahmin Contractual Day’. The Dravidar Kazhagam had, since 1939, considered the aforementioned three Bs enemies. On August 10, 1947, Anna demurred. He said one of the two enemies, the British, was leaving, and only the bania remained. He avoided mention of the Brahmin. In 1967, when Anna joined hands with the erstwhile ‘wily Brahmin’ Rajaji, the Brahmin had been co-opted, and in 1971 when chief minister M Karunanidhi joined hands with Indira Gandhi, the bania had become an ally. On both occasions, the dalliance with the ‘enemy’ was to defeat the ‘Pachai Thamizhan’ or ‘Pure Tamil’ Kamaraj. By 1962, the impending ban saw the DMK give up its separatist demand. Three years later, Anna denied the DMK was a party of ‘expediency’ and no principles: “Federalism, full autonomy for the states and egalitarianism —are these not principles,” he asked. The cardinal goals of federalism and full autonomy appear more distant than ever. Yet, the DMK can look back with some satisfaction on the distance covered with respect to egalitarianism. The party’s early welfare schemes and revamped public distribution system under Karunanidhi laid the foundations of the welfare state. Chief ministers M G Ramchandran and J Jayalalithaa built upon these. Karunanidhi also slightly enlarged the reservations pie, and MGR expanded it to the maximum. Today, the state isknown for both its paternal populism and reservations. On August 28, 2018, in his acceptance speech as president of the DMK, M K Stalin said, “A race that does not change itself to suit the changing times will not last”, indicating his willingness to accept change. Seven decades later, the DMK’s challenges cannot be the same. Insistence that the goalposts remain the same would mean the party has floundered. The challenges are substantial, and they remain jobs, sustainable development, graft, eradication of caste discrimination, weaning people from freebies and subsidies and a calibrated liquor policy to end drunkenness. In 1967, the party gave up on its promise of a measure of rice per rupee for want of ₹5 crore in a ₹240-crore budget. Since 2011, the state has provided five kg of free rice per person. It looks like the party and the voters have come a long way. But have they? When an estimated 35 lakh immi-grant workers have sought to better their lives in the state, the free rice to the needy does not add up. More worrying is the fact that Tamil Nadu spends close to a third of its ₹3,65,321 crore Budget, or ₹1,13,643 crore on subsidies, according to the Reserve Bank of India. These, one would assume, would include subsidised power to farmers and support prices for produce, among other things. Of this, 40% (₹45,000 crore) comes from selling alcohol. This model of taking with the left hand and returning one-and-a-half fold as subsidies with the right and the handout culture require serious introspection. Should not the scions of self-respect be enabling people to catch fish instead of handing out fish? This brings us to jobs and the bane of alcoholism. Total prohibition has proved impossible even in Iran. The state owes its women voters to launch a sustained campaign against drunkenness on the models of the anti-smoking campaign. An ear-nest and sustained awareness campaign on the evils of alcohol could be a fitting start for a party that promised total prohibition in 2016. Jobs remain the crying need of the hour. Tamil Nadu (67.7 lakh) has the second largest number of jobseekers on the live register as of 2021 after West Bengal (77.6 lakh), as per the National Career Service data and the maximum number of SC and OBC jobseekers at around 17.3 lakh and 46 lakh. The unemployment rate of those between 15-29 years for the state, according to the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation’s Periodic Labour Force Survey, is 17.1%. In contrast, Gujarat is at 6.3% and Delhi 6.9%. Neighbours Andhra, Telangana and Kerala are above 20%, while Karnataka scores 13.8%. Also, despite the DMK government’s Meendum manjappai and green initiatives and the party’s environmental wing, the state’s performance in the environmental rankings since 2016 has been slipping, according to the Centre for Science and Environment. Tamil Nadu scored just 4.4 out of 10, while Tel-angana topped with a score of 7.2, followed by Goa at 6.3, Maharashtra at 5.7 and Haryana at 5.5. In the battle between jobs, development and environment, the DMK has a worthy enemy. It would require all its imagination and the help of civil society and experts to keep Tamil Nadu green and environmentally friendly. Precariously dependent on its neighbours for its water, the state must aggressively promote water conservation methods and alternative energy. The DMK’s energies could be usefully channelled thus. Heir apparent Udhayanidhi Stalin does not have to become a Rorschach test talking about Sanatana Dharma. If Sanatana Dharma as the DMK understands it is a particular community’s hegemony, today, the DMK aligned dominate the media to education to breweries. Udhayanidhi’s profile could be raised by what he does best: meetings with youth and constituents, holding job fairs, tracking the implementation of electoral promises, and providing a regular progress report. These would not provide the actor-politician the instant recognition that his remarks on Sanatana Dharma brought him, but they, in the long run, would give him much political heft. The DMK should choose its battles. NEET is a classic case of the sunken cost fallacy. The state’s students should be given all the help they need to face the exam. Similarly, returning education to the state list is an empty aspiration. For 17 years, the DMK was part of the Centre. It could not be achieved. Then how can it be now? On social justice, too, the party seems to be in a time warp. A prop in perpetuity for the backward classes limits their fullest expression, not to mention underestimating their ability to compete. The DMK, like others, abounds in tokenism. But it had lost the plot a long time ago with the vanniyars and the dalits deserting it. Vengaivasal and other incidents further reveal the chinks in the armour of Dravidian inclusiveness. Probity in public life has been in a free fall for a long time. But retaining a minister charged with graft is a new low. While describing the DMK as the party of the modest, Anna said the modest do not have to remain so, envisaging a Tamil Nadu free of want. The DMK has long ceased to be the party of the modest. Its leaders have come a long way from travelling in borrowed cars and living in modest houses. The party’s top echelons are well-heeled, and even third-tier functionaries are visibly well-off. Quite a few of these success stories, however, remain mired in mystery. Anna must be turning in his grave.