Chennai: A dozen years seem to have gone by in a flash after the Deccan Chronicle came into the city like a breath of fresh air in 2005. We celebrate another milestone today in the knowledge that we recorded fairly every event that took place in all those years while breathing life into many of the changes that came about in the city, significantly in Chennai accepting the modern page 3 celebrity culture even as it prided itself on being a bastion of much of what are considered most traditional virtues.
Recent days have been truly tumultuous and tested our mettle in reporting as dramatic events unfolded in the wake of J. Jayalalithaa falling ill and the pressures of the vacuum she later left in her party’s structure. Hardly had one of the most imposing figures of modern Tamil history departed from our midst in what are still seen as mysterious circumstances in some circles than the ill wind blew in the formidable shape of Cyclone Vardah, dealing another mighty blow to a city that was just about breathing easy after the unprecedented floods of 2015.
There was a lot of fluff, even ‘fake news’ around Jaya’s hospitalisation, her reported recovery and subsequent death.
The DC proved to be a model of restraint in neither exaggerating the reports that she was fine nor publishing the intricate details of her illness and the prognosis, which DC had access to long before they came out in the public domain.
There was little place either for extreme optimism of some of Jaya’s party minions because we knew the gravity of her illness.
There was no place either for printing the scary scenario of her inevitable death because already the city was in fear of the possible violence post her demise, as had happened after her dramatic arrest from a Bengaluru court in the DA case.
The Tamil Spring was undoubtedly one of the stirring events of DC’s 12th year.
This spontaneous outburst of emotions in a cause that expanded to become one of a search for finding once again the Tamil identity was a great expression of people’s power. There was not even a political rudder to the movement as it picked up steam and which the government foolishly chose to break by use of brute police force rather than let it wind down in the wake of the favourable State and national political reaction to it.
The passing of an ordinance to be replaced by a State law steamrollered in such a way not even the courts would wish to keep the ban on jallikattu going should have brought about a happy ending rather than a bout of needless violence. As a whole, the movement was a victory for the people, and DC was proud to join it.
The political dramas that followed the breaking of the jallikattu ban were not tales of Tamil valour as much as a naked fight for power. The people seemed to welcome the fact that an aspiring chief minister, whose sole qualification was as the confidante and companion of J. Jayalalithaa, was stopped by a Supreme Court conviction.
The later tussles for power were a new merry-go-round in which Tamils were battling one another to get on to the throne amid a bizarre ‘incarceration’ in 5-star comfort of a whole load of MLAs – this was realpolitik at its commercial worst.
There were other battles fought in the Assembly where the opposition DMK may have missed a trick in taking the aggressive road to push and shove rather than simply protest as they would to stop Parliament in the time-honoured tradition of non-violent dharna in ‘The Well of the House’. Had they only waited to become the martyrs, the opposition may have won far more brownie points with the people.
But then we have the April 12 by-poll coming up for Jaya’s seat, which will be a kind of referendum on her and the party she has left behind. Having seen a dozen lively years in Tamil Nadu, DC looks forward to even more interesting times ahead with the same journalistic spirit of being the objective onlooker recording events without having to take sides, except to be on the side of what is right, just, equitable and inclusive.
