Tumultuous year in Tamil Nadu passes over

No state was in the news, for the right or wrong reasons, as much as Tamil Nadu in the year that is slipping by. The post-Jayalalithaa turmoil lingered on and there was only an important but sort of curious answer from the people in the RK Nagar bypoll verdict honouring the faction of the imprisoned Sasikala. The year may have also ended on a promising note for the main opposition party DMK as its Raja and its ‘queen’ Kani were absolved in the lingering 2G scam that had exercised our minds for years on end. But the political turmoil seemed never ending as the Jaya verdict left her aide singed and her party in more than a bit of disarray despite being very much in the saddle.

The Jallikattu protests had gathered a momentum of their own from end of December 2016 and exploded on to the Chennai scene with a youthful vigour not seen in the state for exactly 50 years after the anti-Hindi students’ agitation had seen the DMK catapult to power. This gathering of people every day on the famous sands of the Marina was more akin to the Arab Spring and not quite a throwback to the Gandhian era of civil disobedience. The people felt empowered after streaming out in droves and the apathy generally attributed to Tamil Nadu seemed to have faded, for a while at least. 

The protests over bull taming, originating in Madurai, surprised us all with its rapid urban spread. But then this is the age of the social media in which crowd gathering has come to assume a whole new meaning. The phenomenon seen in Tunis and Egypt was sighted here too. The central point of the uprising had to do with Tamil pride and the perceived slights the state and its people may have suffered from the Centre with a more distinct north Indian stamp than ever before. It is not only a disinclination to learn and speak Hindi that sets the Tamils apart from the rest of India, which seems to have a greater cultural affinity.

The Neet issue and various other irritants had snowballed into a more pronounced feeling of isolation this time around. All this could be attributed to the sheer inability of others to understand Tamil Nadu and the Tamils. The force of the sustained demonstration of the public will saw a bit of bending on the part of the Centre and the people’s resolve paid off. It is a pity then that there was a bit of violence at the tail end of the Marina Uprising. There was a communication gap and had the government shown patience for a while more, the Jalllikattu agitation would have had the happiest ending on a win-win note. A few miscreants and some policemen were said to have demonstrated their brutal instincts to inflict a crass ending. 

The day that changed the politics of Tamil Nadu for ever was, of course, the one on which the sensational judgment was read out in the Jayalalithaa DA case. Not only did her reputation as a charismatic politician take a beating after the PCA ruling, even if the charges abated since she had died, but her companion of years was treated with a contempt that must be shown against those enriching themselves at the cost of the people. The drama Sasikala staged in making herself up to appear like Jaya was clearly revealing of her ambition to sit in the chair at Fort St George. The verdict put paid to those pretentions though one would daresay she had greater experience in kitchen politics than Lalu’s wife Rabri Devi who was a chief minister of Bihar. 

The scenes in the trust vote after a serious bout of ‘resort’ politics was a typical political drama that has come to be associated with such ‘Assembly’ events. The sky-high powers of the Speaker rear their head in all such crises but at least we had a government and a chief minister who then began to assert himself to give stronger governance. Towards the end of the year, when the annual calamity struck Tamil Nadu, this time in the form of the passing storm Ockhi, Edappadi Palanswami's government responded with alacrity. The restoration of power in the worst affected Kanyakumar district was done in record time. Even so, it appears 2018 is going to be another year of turmoil with even the chance of a spell of President’s Rule not to be discounted.  

The rise of film stars promising to fill the vacuum kept the news wires busier during the year. The PM’s visit during which he also called on the ageing and ailing DMK patriarch set the political tongues wagging some more. In conclusion, it appears 2018 is going to be more of a defining year for Tamil Nadu than even the busy 2017. The stars and their parties may be adding to the political pot in the coming year and should be full-fledged units ready for the 2019 battle. And yet, despite its perceived importance, Tamil Nadu can never be a national player except as a junior partner in a looming comeback of coalition rule, either of the right or the liberal and left. That is a permanent dent on Tamil pride.