Though speech writing is an internationally accepted art with even the earlier US presidents employing professionals, in Tamil Nadu it is frowned upon since the gift of the gab is considered a prerequisite for a politician, though the truth is that many politicians have been having their secret speech writers
A single phrase, ‘Men may come and men may go, But I go on forever,’ from an English poem titled, ‘The Brook,’ has suddenly become a hot topic for discussion in, of all places, the Tamil Nadu political arena. Social media is already flooded with comments and memes, pointing to a faux pas committed by the actor-turned politician, Vijay, whose Tamilaga Vetri Kazhagam has completed one year, in quoting those poetic lines. For most trolls, the goof up in crediting those ‘few words’ erroneously to William Blake came handy in hitting out at Vijay for allegedly reciting rote speeches prepared by others.
Though speech writing is an internationally accepted art with even the earlier US presidents employing professionals, in Tamil Nadu it is frowned upon since the gift of the gab is considered a prerequisite for a politician, though the truth is that many politicians have been having their secret speech writers. But in the case of Vijay, people are made to believe mostly by social media that he is not fit for politics because he is incapable of delivering an extempore speech, breathing fire and brimstone.
So when the first general council of the party saw Vijay quoting the lines of the poem correctly but not the name of the poet those naysayers jumped up citing that as a proof of his dependence on speech writers. Vijay quoted the poetic phrase perhaps to drive home the point that he was there to stay in politics, concluding his address, in which he lashed out at the ruling DMK and also the BJP. But he did not know, or was the speech writer too lazy to Google and check once, that those lines were written by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, an English poet laureate. Of course, for most of the crowd that was cheering for the charged speech, it did not matter who wrote the lines. It was someone who watched the event on television or a social media channel who blew the whistle.
Even then the goof up was not as gross as a former Chief Minister crediting Sekkizhar with authoring the Tamil epic Kambaramayanam. Since Kambar and his eponymous work are more popular among the masses in Tamil Nadu than Alfred, Lord Tennyson, the 2017 goof up of Edappadi K Palaniswami is still trolled. But he does not seem to have blamed it all on the bureaucrats or speech writers, which his colleague Sellur K Raju recently did. When Raju was reminded in the Assembly of his blunder committed in 2017 on a hot afternoon under a blazing sun at the banks of Vaigai reservoir, where he spread out thermocol sheets to prevent surface evaporation of water, he said it was a bureaucratic error.
Hope Palaniswami too will find someone to blame for his latest move to meet Union Home Minister Amit Shah. He had planned it to be a hush hush affair by not publicizing the solo journey to Delhi. He did not inform his supporters in the party to arrive with bouquets and slogan shouters at the airport departure gate to see him off in grand style, as it normally happens. But the rabble of noisy supporters arrived at the airport arrival gate when he returned to Chennai after meeting Amit Shah without taking a final call on renewing his party’s alliance with the BJP. Whatever, the buzz was that the tie-up is for sure.
Since Palaniswami did not deny the rampant speculation but only asked as to which political parties had not gone back on its words when it came to forging electoral alliances, people started wondering why he snapped the ties with BJP in the first place in September 2023. Whatever was the reason then – it was said that the alliance with the BJP was eroding AIADMK’s vote bank – has the situation changed now? Perhaps it has and that was cited as a justification to go back to the NDA fold by the AIADMK leaders who convinced a recalcitrant Palaniswami. So what could be those ‘changes’ in the political scenario that impelled Palaniswami to return to the BJP fold or hold?
One, as many say, is that the AIADMK has lost hope of winning the next electoral race to the Assembly in 2026 by running solo because its popularity was possibly on the decline, mainly after Vijay launched his party offering an alternative for the anti-DMK voters. So, fearing that one more big loss at the electoral sweepstakes could cause immense damage to the image and future of the party, Palaniswami was looking for a solution. The BJP, too, despite all the verbal bravado, felt that the traditional anti-DMK votes and the anti-incumbency votes needed to be channelized and not allowed to scatter.
Only by aligning with the AIADMK could the BJP defeat the DMK first. Subduing the ally AIADMK next to take control of the government will only be child’s play for the party that had proved its mettle on that front several times in many States. But the flip side of the BJP’s desperate bid to capture Tamil Nadu could be detrimental to public peace with the possibility of the polls turning bloody since the party seems to have developed a penchant for open violence, which was evident in Trichy last week when newspersons were beaten black and blue at a meeting attended by the top brass of the State unit.
