NEWSLINKS US EDITION COLUMNISTS DIARY SPECIALS INTERVIEWS CAPITAL BUZZ REDIFF POLL THE STATES ELECTIONS ARCHIVES SEARCH REDIFF
N Sathiya Moorthy in Madras
Forest brigand Veerappan should be sad.
With a few days left for the Tamil Nadu Assembly elections, and rival campaigns having picked up, no one is talking about either Veerappan or Tamil extremism, or even the high voltage Rajakumar abduction, that had stalled politics and normal life in the state and neighbouring Karnataka, for three months.
AIADMK supremo and former chief ninister Jayalalitha had lost no time in blaming the DMK Government of her successor, M Karunanidhi, of confusion first, and collusion later, in the abduction of the Kannada thespian. As the days went by, with no end in sight to the abduction, her voice became shriller, and her charges against the DMK sharper.
The days after the release of Rajakumar and the state police subsequently nabbing Tamil Nadu Liberation Army leader Maran, who was perceived as the brain behind the abduction, even led to Jayalalitha charging the DMK Government with striking a deal with Veerappan, for the brigand giving himself up to the state police, if only to help the ruling party win back voter confidence in an election year.
In return, Jayalalitha averred that the DMK would ensure general amnesty for Veerappan, if it returned to power.
Jayalalitha was not alone in making such claims.
The DMK leadership, speaking in a single voice through the chief minister, asserted that the brigand would be nabbed without much loss of time, once Rajakumar's return had been ensured.
A hesitant government also ordered the revival of the Special Task Force, after haggling with its Karnataka counterpart. While at one stage, the STF seemed have made some progress, and even senior police officials camped in Veerappan country, signalling his arrest early on. Neither has it materialised since.
For the AIADMK, the presence of the PMK in its company may have caused a reversal of roles. PMK founder Dr S Ramadoss was an active campaigner for the Tamil extremist cause at one stage, and even for granting general amnesty to Veerappan, at one stage.
At the height of the Rajakumar abduction episode, he had appealed to the brigand's sensibilities in public, and reportedly sent a missive through the emissary team negotiating freedom for the Kannada actor.
His overnight cross-over to the AIADMK camp may have been behind Jayalalitha looking elsewhere for an electoral issue, after raising heckles even a day before the PMK pulled out of the Vajpayee Government and the Bharatiya Janata Party-National Democratic Alliance at the Centre.
Against this, the DMK is happy that no one is reminding voters now about the sordid days of the abduction, when the state as the highest institution in society, and the state government as the ultimate power centre for any societal institution, in turn, was rendered helpless and hapless, to the core.
The administrative acumen of Karunanidhi also received a severe beating, as the chief minister continuously advised caution without action, to ensure that Veerappan was not provoked into taking out his ire on the hostages.
Some political observers have been talking about Tamil extremism, attributing it to the continued slackness of the DMK rulers of the day, deriving their arguments from the spread of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam militancy and Islamic fundamentalism in the past.
However, other analysts argue that by positing the DMK's political compulsions of the times, and mind-reading the methods of the party's continuous leadership of the past three decades, any resourceful individual or group, could still arrive at the very same conclusions, and pre-determine the electoral course, accordingly.
The high incidence of non-committed vote-banks in the state could not only be influenced, but would also be influenced by such extraneous considerations, with an emotive appeal on the eve of elections, they added.
Today, it serves the purpose of both the DMK and the AIADMK to keep the elections Jayalalitha-centric.
Shorn of eligibility to contest the assembly polls, the AIADMK supremo and her electoral allies, the latter for their own reasons, would rather have the post-poll scenario at the centre of their campaign, now.
Likewise, it pays the DMK as well, if the campaign is kept Jaya-centric, and involved her disqualification to contest elections, and her consequent inadequacy to become chief minister, even if the alliance won the polls.
Veerappan, it seems, can wait. And should wait.
You may also want to see All Jayalalitha nominations rejected
The Complete Coverage: The Abduction of Dr Rajakumar
Back to top
Tell us what you think of this report
