After the passing away of Tamil Nadu’s towering leaders, DMK chief M Karunanidhi and his rival J Jayalalithaa, it was expected that the tone of standoffish hostility that marked the Dravidian politics would go with them. It is ironic that it still remains the same.
At the unveiling of Karunanidhi’s portrait along the centenary celebration of the State Legislative Assembly at Fort St. George in Chennai on Monday, AIADMK leaders were absent. The DMK government had invited the gamut of political leaders, including the BJP, which has four lawmakers in the Assembly.
According to DMK senior leader and water resources minister Durai Murugan, AIADMK leader and former chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami was invited to the event but he had conveyed his disinclination to the state assembly secretary.
Murugan told media that the boycott by AIADMK leaders could be seen in retaliation to DMK leaders’ absence during the unveiling of Jayalalithaa’s portrait. “…we did not take part because weren’t treated with respect. But we will give them respect.”
The back and forth exchanges after a standoff are typical of Dravidian politics. When Jayalalithaa took over as chief minister for a rare second term in 2016, Karunanidhi’s son, MK Stalin, and other representatives from the DMK were made to sit not in the front row but among other politicians at the swearing-in ceremony. A similar back and forth followed and Jayalalithaa blamed it on the arrangements.
Political observers say the DMK and the AIADMK have kept up the tone of hostility for so long, and so fervently, that they form a political equilibrium in the state: One cannot sustain oneself without the other. After the passing of their respective leaders, the DMK has steadied the boat under Stalin but the AIADMK, which does not have a single family exercising a lot of control, is still trying to bring things under control.
In the coming months, Palaniswami and Panneerselvam have the unenviable task of dealing with a recalcitrant Sasikala, who has been claiming to take over the AIADMK. With the party on a sticky wicket internally, the question about the legacy of the Dravidian hostility also emerges, for there is equilibrium in hostility only between equal powers.
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