Form of words:
New Delhi: A picture of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin comforting former deputy CM O Panneerselvam, whose wife passed away on Wednesday, is now giving hope to a civic political culture in the southern state.
Stalin reached the OPS residence on Wednesday and paid tribute to him. In the pictures, he placed one hand on the shoulder of the OPS and the other with folded hands of the former deputy CM. Duraimurugan, the senior DMK leader behind Stalin, can also be seen mourning.
Tamil Nadu CM @mkstalin Former deputy CM’s wife Vijayalakshmi went to meet O Panneerselvam after she died of a heart attack on Wednesday. @DMKITwing#stalin #mkestalin #ops #openneerselvam #opineerselvam #AIADMK #DMK #vijaylakshmi https://t.co/gM2Tm5F6I9 pic.twitter.com/eADfA5KAE9
— dt next (@dt_next) September 1, 2021
However, this is not the only instance of the Chief Minister showing courtesy to his political rivals.
Earlier this week, Stalin decide Photos of former AIADMK CM Jayalalithaa and Edappadi Palaniswami to be placed on 65 lakh school bags for free distribution.
In May, at the height of the second Covid wave in the state, he called an all-party meeting to deal with the rising number of cases in the state and appealed to legislators to put aside their political differences.
Even in the multi-party COVID advisory panel, Stalin Maintained Former AIADMK Health Minister C. Vijayabhaskar. And when AIADMK leader Madhusudan passed away last month, he was among the first to attend the funeral.
This is a far cry from the notoriously bitter relationship that politicians from both parties have maintained since the late 1970s, when MG Ramachandran, or MGR, as he was known, took power in the state.
equation between MGR and Karunanidhi, though initially very good friends, turned sour As the former broke away from DMK and started AIADMK.
This acrimonious tussle between DMK and AIADMK fast During the regimes of Karunanidhi and Jayalalithaa, when both sides filed several cases against each other, publicly attacked each other, including the infamous example of Jayalalithaa leaving the state assembly by tearing her sari and hair , which promised never to return.
DMK leaders say that the Chief Minister is making concerted efforts to ensure cordial relations with various parties. “CM Stalin is bringing a new political culture to Tamil Nadu. Now we have a politician in the form of a chief minister,” DMK leader Kartikeya Sivasenpathy told ThePrint.
“MK Stalin wants to change the bad atmosphere since 2016. Similar steps can certainly be expected to include opposition leaders in the advisory panel in future as well. This is not a one-off,” DMK spokesperson Saravanan Annadurai said.
Read also: Congress Widow, Impotent, Lucha-Lafanga – Political attacks are now about the personal
‘When you die you go to your enemy’s house’
Speaking about this ‘new political culture’, Ramu Manivannan, Professor and Head of the Department of Politics and Public Administration at the University of Madras, explained that Stalin, seeing the political culture during his father’s tenure, now wanted to set an example. .
And this attitude, he said, has come about because of Stalin experiencing the ups and downs of power.
“Inside and outside the legislature, he is displaying a lot of maturity and mutual respect,” Manivannan said. “Even in the legislature, he is restraining members of his own party from excessive flattery and asking them to speak up. It is ensuring that the opposition leaders have enough time to speak.”
However, AIADMK leaders are not much impressed by this.
A senior AIADMK leader Ponnaiyan said Tamil Nadu has always had this culture. “When there is a death, you also pay homage by visiting your enemy’s house,” he said. “We went for Karunanidhi’s demise and for Jayalalithaa’s demise, they came. It’s very common.”
This was also echoed by another AIADMK leader Ravi Bernard, who said it was basic courtesy (Stalin paying his respects to the OPS).
However, the DMK denies these claims. It states that in 2016, when Stalin participated in Despite being the Leader of the Opposition at Jayalalithaa’s swearing-in ceremony, she was seated at the back of the 16th row.
They say that since then Stalin has always wanted to change this bitter political culture. DMK spokesperson Saravanan said, “He is a gentleman who believes that actions are more important than words and hence he attended the last rites of OPS’s wife.”
The bitter political history of Tamil Nadu
In a world of cult politics, Tamil Nadu has a history of bitter political culture, with larger-than-life leaders.
This bitter rivalry first started with MGR and Karunanidhi. The equation of the two evolved from best friend and ally into an intense political rivalry where Karunanidhi Compare Judas to MGR, while MGR portrays Karunanidhi as a black force.
The rivalry only intensified when, in 1977, the MGR administration buried Murder and conspiracy charges against Karunanidhi for the DMK’s demonstration against Indira Gandhi during a visit to Madurai, where Karunanidhi was imprisoned for 40 days.
MGR’s government also passed an order that no public place should be named after a living person and hence renamed ‘Karunanidhi Maligai’, even though many other public buildings and places survived the order. .
Hitting back, the DMK moved two no-confidence motions against the MGR government in 1978–79 for being “corrupt and unfit” and a censure motion in 1979.
Karunanidhi in November 1979 said MGR was the scandal of the year by buying ships from Bulgaria and then in 1980 MGR’s government was sacked in alliance with Indira Gandhi, whose declaration of emergency landed her son MK Stalin in jail and custodially beaten. In this rivalry, Karunanidhi also portrayed MGR for being indifferent to the plight of Tamils.
Although the political rivalry between MGR and Karunanidhi was intense, there were also mild instances of it. However, the nature of the political culture between Jayalalithaa and Karunanidhi became extremely bitter.
there was a case impose Jayalalithaa and her associates on charges of fraud and attempt to murder. It was alleged that the money deposited from the ticket seekers before the assembly elections was not refunded and his aide threatened to kill those who demanded the money back. Sun TV, owned by Karunanidhi’s nephew, showed his arrest within minutes and broadcast a collection of jewelery owned by him. Karunanidhi announced that special courts would be set up to hear cases related to Jayalalithaa on a daily basis.
Jayalalithaa got Revenge When, in 2001, Karunanidhi was dragged out of his house at dawn and not given time to replace him, the telephone lines at his house were cut and his house was filled with policemen accused of corruption by ‘Amma’s sarkars’ . Karunanidhi, along with Stalin, was the main accused in obtaining financial benefits for the construction of the flyover in Chennai.
Apart from blaming each other, the budget session of 1989 is a sight not many will forget. just before the arrival of Karunanidhi Present In the budget, he was barred for his ‘unparliamentary’ behavior towards Jayalalithaa, where he again accused her of tapping his phone and urged the chair to discuss the breach of privilege motion against her.
Jayalalithaa repeatedly said A person accused of ‘criminal acts’ should not be allowed to present the budget and immediately after Karunanidhi fell when the AIADMK leader accused him. Seeing this, the AIADMK and DMK leaders took out the mic and started attacking each other, an AIADMK leader tore the pages of the budget, as soon as slippers and books landed on Jayalalithaa’s head. And while leaving the assembly, DMK leader Durai Murugan allegedly pulled her sari.
(Edited by Arun Prashant)
Read also: Late night mail, surprise inspections, friends in the corridor – the first 100 days of MK Stalin
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