On Mar 26, when DMDK announced its decision to ally itself with
the People's Welfare Front of 4 parties, irrespective of the kind of responses
it elicited from its opponents and sympathizers, something did strike me. There
was a third force in the reckoning, for the first time in TN politics which
exuded so much confidence that we cynics, were forced to think twice before
discounting its potential.
Alternative
Politics, not alternative party:
I have, from all my limited political knowledge and observation,
managed to sketch a concrete, though substantially inchoate, vision of what I
perceive to be the kind of Alternative Politics that we people are rooting for.
Alternative Politics, in the first place, if anything, should have a vision,
for the future. The vision naturally gives a direction and aids in picking the
right ideas towards achieving the end. Under any circumstance, the vision
should not be subjected to compromise, leading to a change in its fundamentals.
The ideas and direction might be altered according to the needs and changing
circumstances. At the centre of evolving ideas towards the end, the ability to
place current social phenomena in its historical context assumes paramountcy.
For instance, Koodankulam issue where thousands of people have
come out to the streets protesting against the operation of the completed
nuclear reactor should be seen as part of the international denuclearization
movement whose voices are worth listening to. The international movement seeks
to suggest cheaper, eco-friendly, alternative renewable sources of energy
along with the ways to realise the end. The vested interests of private nuclear
companies who would not assume responsibility in case of any
nuclear accident, are being targeted by these movements. The removal of
liability laws, which were supposed to come into effect in case of accidents,
led to faulty design of the reactor by Areva in Fukushima(Japan) ultimately
killing thousands of people leading to a mammoth taxpayer effort for the uphill
restoration task. In India, as part of Indo-US nuclear deal, we are supposed to
buy cheap nuclear fuel, bring delicensed international companies(including
Areva) to design reactors for us, generate nuclear power at more than Rs.10 per
unit and acquit these companies immediately, in case of any nuclear accident
however huge the destruction is, and spend our own tax money for the
restoration. These companies have, for decades, been thwarting any attempt
on part of the government to evolve alternative sources of energy.
The notorious methane project which has raised so many eyebrows,
should also be seen as part of the inexorable Liberalisation Machine which has
destroyed and displaced millions of livelihoods in various states like
Chattisgarh, Jharkand etc feeding itself on our underlying natural resources
like bauxite, natural gas, coal etc. Almost all state governments have been
instructed to help and co-operate with the big industrial giants in their
acquisition of our natural resources so that the exploitation of the natives of
the land goes unchecked. If the names are Reliance, Vedanta, Adani in the
North, the methane company in the South has some other name.
With regard to the institutionalised corruption in the state
government departments in TN, it is essential to view it as a systemic failure
of the ‘tender’ system rather than as an issue specific to our own beloved
state. The recent bridge collapse in Kolkata triggered by clandestine IVRCL-
Trinamool dealings stand testimony to my assertion.
All issues mentioned above, as enunciated, are not specific to
Tamil Nadu alone but very much part of an national/international phenomenon. No
single political party in Tamil Nadu has allowed our political discourse to
veer beyond our regional limits. These parties especially Dravidian ones have
kept shifting the blame for all the ruin to each other without even hinting to
our masses, a minor idea of how to permanently clean up this mess. Having said
that, it is worth noting that neither the ADMK nor the DMK have voiced their
concerns on various national issues which are in turn, central to our own
problems, unless these parties had had national ambitions at various points of
time.
During the years of freedom struggle, in many sessions of the
Indian National Congress, during his presidential addresses, Nehru stressed the
importance of locating the Indian freedom struggle on the wide map of the
international movement of the enslaved nations against European Colonialism
rather than confining our view-finder only to our local problems. Nehru
recognised the fact that no local issue is essentially 'local' and no sudden
phenomenon is really 'sudden'. Any social or political event however distinct
and abrupt they may appear, cannot happen outside the boundaries of space and
time. Each event of importance occurring in a particular region, will
definitely have its seeds sown either long back or recently in time, and would
be either a repetition of an event that occurred somewhere else or part of a
parallel phenomenon sweeping the other parts of the world simultaneously.
Hence the Alternative Politics that I propose in Tamil Nadu must
introduce national and international events into its language and discourse,
thereby informing and educating people to look for solutions applied elsewhere
in the world to their own local problems, effectively eliminating the space for
tunnel visioned ethnic, linguistic or other nationalisms.
PWF- The hope?
It is worth mentioning that it was the Left parties in Tamil
Nadu who conceived the idea of the PWF, bringing subsequently Vaiko and
Tirumavalavan into their fold. They barely drew public attention since these
parties were seen as rejects from the long running DMK-ADMK machinery. An
unprecedented factor that favoured the non Dravidian parties this time, was
that the anti incumbency in TN had not completely translated into complete
sympathy for the opposition. Hence the DMDK wielded substantial political
power, being increasingly seen as the game changer around whom the fortunes of
both the ADMK and the DMK revolved. The delay in the decision to align with any
of the popular fronts in Tamil Nadu inflated the hype and attention around the
10 year old party. When, to everyone's surprise, it sealed its deal with the
lesser known PWF, the spotlight that followed the DMDK everywhere fell on the
unobtrusive PWF as well. It is from here, that the third alternative really
looked like taking off, finally.
Having been conceived by the Left, whose progressive ideas have
remained unsold to the general Indian public even after having a near
impeccable record of corruption-free governance in three States for quite a
long time, I expected that the PWF manifesto would contain the foundations of
the Alternative Politics that we are terribly in need of. I was disappointed to
learn that there was not much in it to cheer. The addition of the DMDK could
have given the PWF more firepower, but in the event of them forming a
government, the ideologically impoverished party does not hold out much hope.
Let me remind my readers that the UPA-1 which forced the
Congress to rely more on its alliance partners did not hike petrol prices a lot
of times or trigger so much inflation as it did in its next, relatively
independent tenure. The first NDA government led by Vajpayee also had to depend
on many other parties for its survival and hence nobody from the central government
asked people like me to leave for Pakistan as they do now. Let me reassure you
that I am not digressing, as much as I am reminding you of the benefits a
coalition government can give compared with that of a single party government.
We would not have had an 'Emergency' in 1975 had we voted for a coalition
government. So in that way and possibly the only way, the PWF springs hopes for
the first coalition government in Tamil Nadu. Let us not forget the fact that
no political party has so much innate goodness that, on the event of its
assuming the highest power single-handedly without having to share it with
other partners, they will spare no effort to render service after service to
its hopeful citizenry. In an atmosphere where a winning candidate could not
have spent less than 28 lakh for his campaign, a single party government would
entrust unhindered power in its hands enabling it, not only to recover the
heavy investment but also fatten itself on public money and resources. A
coalition in that sense, would at least to some extent, squelch its feeding
frenzy.
P.S: All my above arguments are for those who believe in voting
and would not miss an opportunity to exercise their so called 'right' and
'power'. I have been called many times by my friends as being 'unpatriotic' and
'traitorous' for abstaining from voting in all the elections. But I always had
a far less guilty conscience than theirs. I at least did not play a role in
bringing their two DMKs into power as they did.
P.P.S: I am not voting this time as well.
