The Whistle Blowers

I was on a bus from my place to Besant Nagar. At Ashok Pillar stop, people boarded the bus. There was Naik, an old friend of mine. He came and sat near my seat. It was a long time since we both met. The bus got stopped by a huge traffic because of a road block. Ahead were school students protesting against NEET and seeking justice for Anitha. He asked me curiously why TN is always in protest mode. Why TN people are so emotional, negative, narrow-minded and stereotyped? And why TN doesn’t join the mainstream India? If the whole nation travels in a direction why TN travels in the opposite direction? TN is always a spoiler in India, he was angry. As my stop came, I smiled at him and said “we’re not spoilers but whistle-blowers”, and got down.
Later that night, I thought of his question and I wanted a justification on my statement “we’re not spoilers but whistleblowers”, if that is true?
What I can accept is Tamil Nadu has never followed the stream. When the nation travels in one direction, we will be travelling in another direction, mostly opposite to the stream.
In 1977, Lok Sabha elections when the whole nation voted against Indira Gandhi, she had a huge victory here. Everyone claimed that it was Indira’s INC alliance with MGR that gave them the win and that it was a result of MGR’s charisma as it was his first election. In 1980 LS elections, people proved them wrong. This time Indira Gandhi had an alliance with DMK, and M. Karunanidhi’s DMK nearly swept the elections leaving MGR in shock. After this victory DMK was happy as it led to the dissolution of assembly and re-election in the state. This time MGR had a huge victory where he lost against the same alliance a few months ago. This repeated again in 1996 when Jayalalitha was ousted from power. An all-time defeated low for ADMK. The same year, in the LS elections, Kalaignar’s DMK swept all 39 seats leaving Jaya into a big crisis as far as putting questions into people’s mind that it was an end to Jaya’s political career.
However, in a short span, Jaya had a comeback in the 1998 LS elections. The same Jayalalitha was ousted by people because of corruption charges and her foster son’s marriage. But the same people voted for her in a huge margin in a very short span. I always wonder how that was. The answer is simple? Sympathy. Sympathy got votes, by the way she was arrested in DA case in 1996 which turned the situation upside down. This time in 1998 she was very powerful and was instrumental in making Vajpayee as Prime Minister and removing him. The same Jaya had a big defeat against Karunanidhi in just 13 months. So after studying all the facts we might find difficult in finding the voting pattern of TN People. Even big analyst’s failed in that.
Are we unpredictable? Are we emotionally attached to leaders? Why iconicity takes the first place instead of ideology in Tamil Nadu? Truly, we’re unpredictable especially the driving force is unpredictable. And for emotional attachment with our leaders I remember a dialogue from a Tamil movie ‘Ramana’ of actor turned politician Vijayakanth. “Tamilnaatu makkal avlo seekiram yaar melayum nambikkai vechira maatanga, aana vechitaanga na saagura varaikkum marakka maatanga. Sir inga thondana yemathina thalaivan undu aana thalaivana yemathuna oru thondan kooda kedayaadhu”. An emotional bonding does exist.
So is Tamil Nadu a spoiler or a whistleblower in India? A whistleblower as I said earlier. Since when? One can quote it from Paleolithic or Indus valley civilization eras. Or from Justice Party’s or Periyar’s times. But to start from 1965’s Anti Hindi Agitation, as it is wrongly said, which was in essence an Anti Hindi Imposition agitation: from Hindi to anti-NEET the pattern is clear. Social Justice! Reports say high number of protests in last 5 years happened here. Even communist states are behind Tamil Nadu in the list. Tamil Nadu is a state for sporadic movements. We saw women demolishing TASMAC in every locality of their own. There’s always a step-up, whenever the government goes in the wrong path in basic rights and social justice.
From scrapping hand-pull rickshaws, devadasi system to creating HRCE department, mid-day meal scheme, Tamil Nadu is always a pioneer. When the country is now discussing about mid-day meal scheme, in Tamil Nadu it was introduced as a pilot project by Justice Party almost a century ago, in the 1920s. It was further popularized by Kamaraj in the late 1950s and the scheme was transformed into Nutritious Meal Scheme in late 1970s by MGR and more features added by Jayalalithaa and Karunanidhi later. From free student bus passes to napkins, bicycles, laptops, etc., the pattern of social justice in Tamil Nadu is visible.
Whenever there is social injustice trying to root in the country, the whistleblowers will always be the Tamils.