JOIN USThe “rationalist” DMK in Tamil Nadu has now turned to the ‘Ramayana’, a text that its Dravidian movement mentor Periyar had decried, to help soften the blow from the latest bout of sibling rivalry that reared its ugly head at the recently concluded general council meeting.
Incredible, it may seem. But the DMK taking recourse to the ‘Ramayana’ as a metaphoric text with a profound meaning, even if its rationalist founders were inclined to dismiss it as a “myth touting Aryan superiority”, came from none other than the party’s general secretary, Prof K Anbazhagan.
Amid the embarrassing flutter at its GC here when loyalists of the DMK’s youth wing leader M K Stalin unreservedly project Stalin as the “next leader”, the party’s fabric suddenly seemed all too fragile.
Even the 88-year-old party patriarch M Karunanidhi was shell-shocked at this open tussle that he saw in it a “conspiracy” to break the unity within.
Karunanidhi was so disgusted at this turn of events that he told his partymen to “elect their own new leader”, but was persuaded by seniors on stage to stay on, sources told Deccan Herald. Also, Karunanidhi’s elder son M K Alagiri studiously kept away from the evening session when the inner-party struggle popped up again. Though Veerapandi S Arumugam is known for such abrasive remarks, given the 90-years-old Prof Anbazhagan’s vast experience as DMK’s general secretary since 1977, could not dismiss it as a routine surface rift.
In the larger backdrop, when two of the DMK’s senior-most leaders are handling a crucial leadership transition in the party, amid the image dent it has suffered in the wake of the ‘2G’ scam and other issues, Anbazhagan decided to bite the bullet as a Tamil scholar.
The controversy had erupted as the GC was to consider some key changes to the party constitution including creating an interim post of a vice-president, a slot with Karunanidhi’s younger son, M K Stalin in view. He needed more authority to reorganise the party when his father’s mobility has been restricted though DMK chief is still very much active. But this proposal could not even be placed before GC as some seniors opposed it.
Anbazhagan thus came out candidly, urging everyone to learn a lesson or two from ‘Ramayana’, “though I have criticised it in the past”. The travails of Rama were many, but Barath did not exploit his adversity. Likewise, Rama’s two other brothers, Lakshman and Shatrugnan, stood by him and there was a “rare unity among the brothers despite differences.”