Tamil Nadu’s politics to see a tectonic shift?

The collective sigh of relief in Tamil Nadu may have been heard even in the premises of the Supreme Court on Tilak Marg in New Delhi. Tuesday may have dawned as the day of reckoning for one person and her cohorts, but long before noon it had transformed into the definitive day of deliverance for the whole state of Tamil Nadu. The relief stems not only from the nixing of the vaulting ambition of Sasikala, a live-in aide of former chief minister J. Jayalalithaa, who after her conviction in the disproportionate assets case is now ineligible to seek public office for 10 years, but also in the state now being delivered from the inexplicable hold of decades of stars from the film world and their acolytes. More significantly, the unanimous judgment of the two-judge bench strikes a big blow against corruption in high places, which in Tamil Nadu had been distilled into a form of high art by the machinations of politicians, including Jayalalithaa, that would put to shame the rapaciousness of tinpot dictators of the Third World.

The modern history of Tamil Nadu is pockmarked by personalities of the film world looming larger than life in politics, with five of them going on to become chief ministers — two scriptwriters, an actor and two actresses who were the wife and girlfriend of the matinee idol MGR. People from the make-believe world of films who capture Fort St George may be capable as administrators too. But it is the monopoly created by this myth of social ideals being best met by these people who project themselves on the screen as heroic supermen and women capable of solving every problem of the poor that spoiled a state known for efficient administration by public-minded politicians. The hold of filmstars may have finally ended with Jayalalithaa’s death last December.

What completes the process of delinking politics from films is the Sasikala conviction. She and her close relatives, who were accused of hatching a conspiracy to hold Jayalalithaa’s assets to begin with, have been convicted on the grounds of criminal conspiracy. The actions of Sasikala as an extra constitutional authority whose links to the chief minister were so strong, save on a couple of occasions, that the state administration was virtually under her control as she was the deciding authority or the decisive influencing factor in all major appointments and transfers, be it IAS officers or policemen, were as reprehensible as her acquisitiveness of money and property. This was the saddest part of Tamil Nadu’s descent, particularly since Sasikala’s third innings at Poes Garden, that a state featuring extreme sycophancy should also become totally apathetic to public functions being hijacked in this manner.

Ironically, the disproportionate assets of Rs 66.65 crores that set the ball rolling in this famous 21-year-old case, marked by judicial lassitude in the face of obvious dilatory tactics, may be a mere fraction of what may have been aggrandised through a finger in every pie and hand in many bottles of alcohol amounting to thousands of crores of rupees in turnover in selling the products of a family-owned distillery to the state liquor vend monopoly Tasmac, and in the natural resources of the state like sand, minerals, granite and forest produce, all sold for a fraction of the fair price. A string of shell companies were established as early as in the 1990s — as seen in the voluminous case records — which pattern was modernised and scaled up for optimum returns to the extent that doing business with and in Tamil Nadu had become an extremely hazardous enterprise with the politicians’ take going as high as 40 per cent.

Both Dravidian parties can be held guilty of steering the state in the last 26 years more and more towards an obsession with the welfare of political leaders and their kin rather than the people, the poorest of whom could be bought over by the generous offer of freebies and shaped into a votebank to be exploited at election time. Paying obeisance to leaders had become such a fetish that nowhere else in India could anyone imaging enjoying this demigod status to such extremes that even conviction in a court for corruption would take away nothing from the image. It was such adulatory practices that allowed those at the helm to do as they pleased. All that may not change too quickly but what might mark a new beginning in Tamil Nadu politics is the realisation that the leaders, including Jayalalithaa, have feet of clay and that newer models of governance may emerge which would have to listen to the voice of the people.

The recent protests for Jallikattu were idealistic and apolitical. They, however, represent a great change in the behaviour of the people of the state who found one cause to rally together in what is being termed as the “Tamil Spring”. If the same spirit guides them towards questioning their leaders instead of offering blind loyalty, there might be a chance of a tectonic shift in the dynamics of Tamil Nadu politics. The succession issue may linger for a while longer but whoever comes as the next chief minister of Tamil Nadu after a likely composite floor test would probably have to be far more accountable to the people. The era of career politicians clinging to charismatic leaders who could attract the public vote and bring the bandwagon to power may be over. The point, however, is whether the people will come to their senses and accept that the era of the illusory benefits of freebies is also over. Tamil Nadu, left behind on many national indices, must modernise quickly, which only a stable government can help achieve.