Why Was the Congress So Rambunctious in Tamil Nadu?
The party has been thriving on sound and fury with no substantial ideological or political outlook that would appeal to the people at the grassroots level and its leaders come with a quintessentially zamindari outlook and demeanor
Many who closely watched the rambunctious behavior of some Congress leaders in the run up to the finalization of seat-sharing with DMK for the coming Assembly elections in the State felt a bit let down when it ended in a damp squib. Of course, those were the people, within the two parties and outside of it, who wanted the decade-long alliance to break for different obvious reasons. Keeping aside the sentiments of those disappointed souls, if one looks back at the politics and history of Congress in the State, there should be no reason for any surprise. Only thing is that the Congress now has no clue about what it wants in Tamil Nadu exactly.
As a political party of such vintage with a glorious history of spearheading the independence movement successfully, Congress wants to rule the State. It is an aspiration common to all parties worth the ballot paper in which their election symbols get printed and even get stamped but each of the parties is expected to devise its own strategies based on the ground realities and set goals depending on the mood of the people and their own popularity among voters. Going by that norm, the Congress dreaming of capturing power at Fort St George after its historic debacle in 1967 is nothing but a mirage though it does not mean that the party has no relevance at all in the State.
When it was first defeated by the then rising DMK in 1967, it was representing a pan India movement with the trappings of a nationalistic outlook. Much water has flown down the Coovam and six decades later the Congress has become the key ally of the DMK, particularly in meeting the latest political challenge in fighting the Hindutva forces that profess a political thought that is more acerbic in its nationalistic moorings. So the DMK, which is still depending on its original philosophies like secularism, rationalism and regionalism to remain in the reckoning of the electorate, latched on to the Congress and fought a series of elections in the past one decade. Ahead of that the two parties were in the same coalition that ruled India for a decade.
Then, why did the Congress suddenly look around for an alternative, find a glimmer of hope in latching on to the nascent Tamilaga Vetri Kazhagam of Vijay and start playing truant with the DMK, taking the time tested alliance to the abyss? Well, as mentioned, the Congress does not know what it wants and how to navigate the choppy waters of the State politics mainly because it has no leader with the political wisdom and acumen to guide it as a people-oriented party to the victory stand. The party has been thriving on sound and fury with no substantial ideological or political outlook that would appeal to the people at the grassroots level and its leaders come with a quintessentially zamindari outlook and demeanor.
Though many leaders of the other parties that are still managing to garner popular support, like the DMK and AIADMK, too, could be accused of having the same countenance, the parties collectively do not exude that sort of an upper class, privileged aura like the Congress. Unlike the other parties in the State, including the Dravidian majors, the State Congress persistently presents an image of an outfit controlled from elsewhere with somebody from somewhere holding the reins. Such a phenomenon comes to the fore mainly during elections when the candidates chosen to contest lack grounding in the constituencies they are assigned to.
To cite a latest example of people’s disillusionment over the MLA not living in the constituency, when there was a ghastly murder of two persons in Perumpathu within the Nanguneri constituency very recently, some people pointed out that the Congress MLA does not live there. Of course, the MP, Ruby Manoharan, does not even belong to the place, they said, pointing out that the Congress does it regularly. At least two Congress MPs, who were nominated at the last minute to fight in the Lok Sabha constituencies of Tirunelveli (Robert Bruce) and Mayiladuthurai (Sudha) were outsiders. The people voted for them because they represented the Congress though the party betrayed their trust by fielding outsiders.
Even the just died down controversy over seat sharing between the DMK and Congress was primarily stoked by Congressmen from outside Tamil Nadu though some from the State joined in later. It began with Girish Chodankar - luckily he was present at Anna Arivalayam when the agreement was finally signed on seat sharing – saying that the Congress has grown phenomenally in Tamil Nadu and that it could contest in over 100 seats, though it had won just 18 of the 25 seats allotted to it in 2021. That political discovery of Chodankar, who personally has not won any election in his home state of Goa, triggered a plethora of acrimonious comments from Congress leaders like Manickam Tagore MP and Praveen Chakravarty.
Chakravarty was the one who held a longish conversation with Vijay even after the negotiations between the Congress and DMK had begun. Perhaps Chakravarty, who has no grassroots level exposure in politics thought his education in Wharton and BITS-Pilani and work experience in Microsoft, IBM and Wall Street would stand him in good stead. That is the typical thinking of Congress leaders, who turn them rambunctious during negotiations and meekly accept whatever is given.