Saturday, April 9, 2016

Makkal Nala Kootani and Alternative Politics

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.


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