Is AIADMK helping BJP by not voicing opinions on key issues?

Commentators said the AIADMK’s actions mean only one thing -- they do not want to “overstep” the BJP

When the Bill to provide 10 per cent quota to Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) in educational institutes and jobs was tabled in Parliament in 2019, the AIADMK, despite being an ally of the ruling BJP. opposed it tooth and nail, contending that economic status can never be the criteria for providing reservation.

The party’s senior MP and then deputy speaker of Lok Sabha M Thambidurai delivered a passionate speech against EWS quota and asked the BJP to reconsider the same. Nearly four years later, AIADMK, credited with enhancing reservation to 69 per cent in Tamil Nadu, seems to have taken a U-turn by welcoming the Supreme Court verdict upholding the EWS quota when all regional parties in the state have opposed it.

The party also boycotted an all-party meeting convened by Chief Minister M K Stalin to discuss the next course of action on the issue.

Not just this. The AIADMK’s response to the release of six convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case was also muted with its interim general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami choosing not to release even a statement on both issues though it was the resolution passed by the Cabinet headed by him on which the Supreme Court based its verdict.

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While the DMK tried to put the AIADMK on the mat over the issue of EWS quota, accusing it of “siding with the BJP”, the ruling party happily took credit for the release of the convicts, which has been an emotive issue in Tamil Nadu for the past several years, even as the principal opposition party looked helpless.

On both issues, AIADMK’s ally BJP found an opportunity to take on the DMK by taking to town the “double standards” of the party and its “soft-pedalling” nature on issues of national security. AIADMK’s studied silence on two key issues comes at a time the party is accused of “ceding” willingly the opposition space to the BJP, whose presence on the ground and on television is increasing each passing day.

Political analyst Prof Ramu Manivannan and senior journalist R Bhagwan Singh said the AIADMK’s actions mean only one thing -- they do not want to “overstep” the BJP or “ruffle the saffron feathers.”

“They don’t want to overstep the BJP. While OPS played the bridge for the BJP to enter the state, EPS did his bit by not antagonising the BJP. And tomorrow, if the BJP changes its stand on EWS, I am sure the AIADMK will also review its position and toe the BJP line,” Prof Ramu Manivannan, who taught Politics and Public Administration at University of Madras told DH.

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Singh said the recent developments only prove that the AIADMK is in no mood to “ruffle the saffron feathers since they don’t have their feathers themselves. AIADMK under Jayalalithaa would have never accepted EWS.

“The AIADMK’s U-turn on EWS was pure opportunistic politics and goes on to prove that the party had no ideological stand. It does not want to be seen as one opposing the BJP’s stand. That is why it even failed to take credit for the release of those convicted in Rajiv assassination case,” he said.

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A senior AIADMK leader said the party’s stand on EWS quota was shocking as its MPs opposed the Bill on the floor of Parliament.

“Hiding behind the Supreme Court verdict won’t help the AIADMK. The party saying it respects the SC ruling on EWS quota is a major change in its stance and it will only help the DMK mount yet another attack by labelling us as pro-BJP and a party that opposes what other parties in the state want,” he told DH.

The AIADMK leader also said the current top brass of the party should read the history to know how the legendary M G Ramachandran was made to eat a humble pie in 1980s when he proposed economic status as a criteria for availing reservation.

“The stand on EWS should change. And we aren’t able to fathom the DMK taking credit for the release of Rajiv convicts when it was our Amma (J Jayalalithaa) and later EPS who passed resolutions in Assembly and Cabinet on the issue. The DMK which based its arguments on the resolution passed by AIADMK cabinet now takes credit and we are giving them a press pass,” another leader said.