Asserting that PMK is an inclusive party and not casteist, its Chief Ministerial candidate Anbumani Ramadoss says the party has come out of whatever little discrepancies and shortfalls it has had in the past, thus ushering in a change. In a wide-ranging interview with E.T.B. Sivapriyan, the PMK leader speaks about his party’s vision, the freebie culture, the casteist tag attached to the PMK and its popular prohibition plank. Excerpts of the interview:
Q PMK is the first party in Tamil Nadu to have projected a Chief Ministerial candidate to face the polls. Where did this idea come from and how did the party muster the political courage to do so?
The perception and attitude of the people today is towards change. The youth badly want a change - they are fed up with 50 years of rule by the two Dravidian majors. The perception that the state needs an alternative to these two parties has been there for the past 15 years and that is why when Vijayakanth said he is the alternative, people voted for him and gave him 10 per cent of votes. It was because of the concept called “alternative” and not for the actor himself. Based on the need for an alternative, we took a bold decision to contest on our own and we have a head start because the party announced me as Chief Ministerial candidate 15 months back and I have been meeting people since then. Youngsters are our support base today and their trust has given us a lot of confidence that we will win this elections.
Q You openly say you will not distribute any freebies, but on the other hand the Dravidian parties have promised a lot of freebies. Do you think the electorate has matured enough to opt for development rather than freebies?
Absolutely. I am sure people are matured enough (to vote for us). Today, we have come five years from the last election and this election social media is playing a crucial role. The youngsters, who form 2.25 crore of the electorate, are well-versed with political nuances and they cannot be swayed by any of the freebies and political stunts. Today’s youth associate me with them as a doctor and as a professional. So, none of the frontrunners are a professional like me; they are all from the movie industry. Youngsters feel that Anbumani is talking sense and hope that I will do something for them. Our prohibition plank is working wonders for us and this has enlisted the support of women.
Q Cinema craze and addiction towards cinema stars is a common feature in Tamil Nadu politics. Do you think you have a chance?
Parents of today’s youngsters’ may have been crazy towards cinema and cinema stars. But the youth are well-versed in politics and they just want development. For them, the biggest problem is unemployment and they feel these parties are not doing anything to get them a job. Nobody is talking about progress; all they do is deliver movie-like dialogues on stage. Today, the biggest problem in Tamil Nadu is unemployment. 1.3 crore people are unemployed and they want jobs, not freebies which would make them lazy.
Q You say women are the biggest support base for you and PMK. But AIADMK says women are their vote bank and they will vote en masse for Jayalalithaa. And the AIADMK manifesto has lot of freebies for the womenfolk. Your comments please.
Women below 50 are the active supporters of the PMK because they are the ones who are directly affected by the liquor menace. The women, wherever I go, say their husband, their brother and their father are addicted to liquor. So, these women would not vote for the DMK or AIADMK since their prohibition policy is not clear. They will vote only for us. The AIADMK targets women who are more than 50 years of age and these are the people who are left to fend for themselves and freebies matter to them. The parties lure such women with money for vote since '500 or '1,000 is big money for these sections.
Q Why do you think people should say no to freebies?
These all are cheap freebies. Among the freebies given in the last five years, grinders worked just for about a week, mixer grinders worked only for two days, the fans did not even turn and the TVs (distributed between 2006-2011) were completely defunct. But I promise people that I will give you education and jobs so that you can buy these things on your own. Ms Jayalalithaa has promised phones for every household. Why do people need cheap phones? If they get a job, they will buy an expensive and quality phone by themselves. I quote a Chinese proverb, which says if you feed a man a fish he will eat for a day, if you teach him how to fish he can eat for the rest of his life. It is working in favour of me.
Q PMK is the first political party to promise full prohibition. But today, the DMK and AIADMK also promise the same. Why do you think people will vote for you and not for the two parties when all of you promise the same?
If DMK and AIADMK say they will root out corruption, will people believe them? The answer is no. Same way, if these parties say they will implement prohibition, people will only laugh at them, which is happening. The DMK did not even organise one protest in the past 50 years against prohibition, but today they say they will bring a law. It does not need a law; all that is needed to implement prohibition is an Executive Order. Nobody wants to believe the AIADMK. We are the only party which has a blueprint on how we will bring about prohibition in the state; we have listed out the measures that we will take to rehabilitate Tasmac workers. Other parties are just shouting from the roof without any plan. We are quite confident that women will trust us, not others.
Q You say your party has tremendous support among youth and women. But this does not get reflected in the opinion polls that have come out so far?
The opinion polls have systematically blacked out the PMK. There is nothing scientific about these polls which have come out so far. One opinion poll claims I am in the third place in Penagaram whereas I won the 2014 Lok Sabha polls by a margin of 80,000 votes. Most of the opinion polls have been proved wrong. This is not an opinion poll in my opinion; it is actually thrusting of their opinion on people. Basically, they are creating an opinion.
Q You say you have done a lot of good things while being in Opposition. But people and Opposition brand you as a casteist party. How you react to such branding?
The issue about caste is as long as we were with the DMK and AIADMK and aligning with them we were a good party. Once we came out of them, suddenly we became a caste party. If we were a caste party, why should DMK, AIADMK, Vaiko or Vijayakanth align with us? They should have avoided us. But they did not avoid us. Today, PMK is definitely not a caste party and it has been talking about welfare of all sections of the society. I am not saying we are a perfect party.
We have had our shortfalls and discrepancies here and there. But we have changed. When we say change and progress it is not only for others but for ourselves as well. We have changed, we have come out of whatever little discrepancies we had. But there is absolutely no intention for PMK to be a casteist party, religious party or to be against anybody. Our party is for inclusive growth.
Q Are you saying PMK has shed the caste tag?
Talk to neutral persons and they will say PMK is for progress. We don’t even talk ill about anyone. We are on a progressive mode and we talk about only eradication of corruption and poverty. We have not spoken anything else.
Q In 1996, the PMK contested alone but from 1998 to 2011 the party aligned with either DMK or the AIADMK. Suppose, the PMK loses this election, will you go back to the Dravidian parties?
Since 2011, we have maintained equidistance from both the parties. I apologise to people that we made a mistake (of aligning with the DMK and AIADMK). This (contesting alone) is going to stand forever. We absolutely have no intention of going with them. Here after we will not be going with the DMK or AIADMK. We won’t have the necessity at all. I don’t see us going anywhere going back and we are winning this election for sure. There is no question of losing.
Q You are an MP and you are contesting the Assembly elections. In case, you lose (interrupts)
There is no “in case” here. Hypothetically, we can speak but we are confident of winning and we will definitely win because there is a groundswell of support for us. Every political party is following us. We are trendsetters in Tamil Nadu politics.
