Ignorance is not an excuse

‘Sasikala releases first list of ADMK candidates for the Assembly Elections’

‘Jaya expels Sasikala from Poes’

‘Sasikala returns to Poes Garden’

All the above sentences ruled the regional headlines of our newspapers in the beginning of this decade.

Those who had followed Tamilnadu politics for quite a while, had they not forgotten these incidents, will have no reason to be surprised on Sasikala's elevation as CM.

'How can a servant maid turn CM within a day, that too without people's mandate ?'

'I am thinking about moving out of Tamilnadu because I cannot accept Sasikala as my CM'

The above are some of the reactions that I have been seeing on social media soon after news of Sasikala's elevation became public. 

First let us talk about the validity of these reactions to this sudden development in Tamilnadu.

With respect to the accusation that a ‘servant maid’ is ascending the throne, let me hasten to add that Sasikala had ceased to be a servant maid to Jaya for almost a decade. One of her relatives had won contracts from the TASMAC soon after the inception of the Government Corporation, for his multi-crore Midas Distilleries. The relationship of Midas with TASMAC continued even during the days of DMK regime and lasts to this day. 

Various authentic sources also confirm that Sasi's cronies own lot of companies that are directly in control of the State's natural resources with the active, legal co-operation of the Tamilnadu government.

That Sasikala had control over Jaya's selection of MLA/MP candidates is proven by the fact that she released a list of candidates for the 2011 Assembly polls ignoring the roles of ADMK’s alliance partners- DMDK and the Left. The alliance partners then, appealed to Jaya immediately after the incident, that she had to declare the list 'unofficial' within a day, replacing it with a fresh one subsequently.

A lot of newspapers reported that during every election, Sasikala was very much part of the 'Election interview process' through which she kept firming her hold over the party by selecting candidates who were amenable to her.

Sasikala's grip didn't remain confined to the legislature alone. She and her cronies had penetrated even into the State's Executive and many top bureaucrats of Tamilnadu including those in the Police Department had close associations with Sasikala and her family.

Many industrialists in Tamilnadu, had been subject to severe 'extortion' from Sasikala family which had, by the beginning of Jaya's third term, transformed into what is now known as the 'Mannargudi Mafia'.

All the information I have furnished above did not take much time and effort to be gathered, and anyone who had even a very sparing interest in TN politics would already be knowing all this.

And let me also add that even most of them who knew enough of the 'Mannargudi Mafia' and who knew very well that the Mafia had been running the ADMK for quite a while, continued to vote for the party because Jaya was its leader.

This practice of voting for a leader, however corrupt a party is, is one of the biggest mistakes that we, as an immature electorate, have been committing from time immemorial. Voting for a leader, instead of voting for a party or its ideology, has done more harm to the country than good, right from our Independence.

In 1984, we voted for the Congress after the assassination of Indira Gandhi and inspite of the subsequent Congress-sponsored Sikh genocide(more than 10000 Sikhs killed), only because we loved the slain leader and badly wanted his son to succeed her.

In 1998, we voted the BJP to power at the Centre, quite aware of the fact that the party was solely responsible for Babri Masjid Demolition and the subsequent riots, only because the leader was a moderate Atal Bihari Vajpayee. We ended up having 2002 Gujarat riots which killed more than a thousand Indians.

In 2014, we voted for the BJP overwhelmingly inspite of its dubious secular credentials, only because a single man named Modi promised that he would deliver India out of corruption. The Vyapam scam in Madhya Pradesh and the Sahara Birla Diaries stand testimony to the fact that a single man, however honest and efficient he may sound, cannot accomplish anything if his organisation, by nature, is wholly corrupt. 

One of my friends, very recently told me, to my surprise, that he hates RSS but adores Modi. He added that he abhors Hindu extremism but loves Modi’s brand of politics.

RSS is an organization which believes in and works towards the formation of a Hindu Rashtra where minorities are bound to be second-class citizens. This is the core principle of the RSS and none can be an RSS pracharak if he doesn't believe in this. If Modi doesn't believe in RSS principles, there is no reason why he should have joined the organisation. Nobody joins an organization if he is at variance with its core principles. Hence if you are voting for Modi, it is implied that you are endorsing communal politics. If you argue that you voted only for his anti-corruption agenda and not for his communal politics, it means you did not do adequate research about him and his organization.

The RSS and it's offshoot BJP would lose their identity if they stop being communal. And this is the reason why the BJP, all these days speaking about bringing ‘development’, have picked their 'communal card' back for the upcoming UP assembly elections, openly promising to build the Ayodhya temple in their manifesto.

Now let me come back to the Sasikala saga. If you were responsibly following TN politics over the decade, and thereby knew very well that the Mafia was controlling the party, but still kept voting for ADMK because Jaya was the face of the party, you have no reason to feel shocked or disillusioned at Sasikala's elevation. You people were completely responsible for this sad state of TN politics. All these days you people kept voting for the Mafia directly whose nominal head was Jaya. In other words, for every cent that the Mafia earned under ADMK rule, Jaya bestowed the much required legitimacy and you people were approving it through the ballot each and every time.

Or if you weren't following TN Politics properly but kept voting for ADMK innocuously, it is another kind of a crime you people could not help committing on your fellowmen. Following politics is as important as casting your vote. If you are entrusted with a right, make sure you are worthy of it. 

If Sasi could summon all the MLAs on a single night before Jaya's death and make them sign blank sheets of paper so that they don't switch allegiances, imagine how much effort she had put in getting them elected as MLAs.

Please remember that our country is a Democratic Republic where only parties contest each other in the elections and not individual leaders. Ours is not a Presidential form of Government like the U.S where you vote for your leader directly. Hence, it is perfectly fine if the majority of the legislators whom you voted for, choose someone as their leader and anoint them as the Head of the Government. Manmohan Singh never contested any elections in his lifetime and served as PM for nearly a decade. Please remember that Pugazhendi in Mudhalvan became one-day CM without contesting any elections. If all this is fine, then Sasikala's case shouldn't trouble you at all.

There is only one solution to this. Let us first try to come out of our 'Masala Movie Mindset'. No single Sivaji or Anniyan or Ramana is going to save us from exploitation and poverty. Even if someone like that emerges on top, he will be eliminated immediately by the all-powerful System before he tries to move a stone. John F Kennedy, the youngest President of the US was assassinated by the CIA and the all powerful Military- Industrial lobby when he tried to alter the country's questionable foreign policy. Same happened to Martin Luther King.

Hating a party but loving it's leader is fine as long as your preferences don't translate into votes. If you vote for Modi, you are actually voting for the BJP whose primary ideology is Hindu nationalism. If you vote for Sitaram Yechury, you are voting for the Communist party whose ideology is Socialism. Vote for Yechury only if you want socialism. Not because he is individually clean or speaks well in public meetings. Same applies to your Narendra Modi.

Before you cast your vote, please go through a party's history and it's positions on various important issues. Records of individual leaders come secondary. 

Nothing destroys our country more than our apathy towards politics. Our grandfathers evinced so much interest in politics and took an active part in them that they won us freedom from colonialism. Our fathers too were sufficiently interested in politics that they ended up having good leaders like Anna and Kamaraj. Now look at us. Just try to examine the relationship between our declining interest in politics versus declining quality of our leaders. We were once ruled by a freedom fighter, then by an outstanding scholar. The quality began to decline when we voted a cinema-writer to power. He soon gave way to a cinema actor, then to a dancer-cum-actress and now..