JUST SPAMMING | The Storm Is In PMK Teacup Or TN Politics?
But the fact is that nobody expected Ramadoss to go open with his second marriage – it has to be the second only because he has completed 60 years with his known wife Saraswthi - though there has been persistent whispers about a secret liaison with a nurse that only gathered more strength after he had a fight with his son, Anbumani Ramadoss, leading to an informal split in the party
A set of photographs of PMK founder S Ramadoss celebrating the golden jubilee of his wedding raised a storm on its release last week. When it is very, very common for politicians, or for that matter anybody, to commemorate such milestones in life, why should this one turn into a controversy? Just because the woman, sitting next to the senior politician, who has been continuously in the limelight since the 1980s, on the sofa was new to the common people. Some of those surprised people had only seen another photograph of the same Ramadoss celebrating his 60th wedding anniversary with his wife Saraswathi days before that.
So the photographs that cropped up in social media all of a sudden showing the senior PMK leader celebrating his 50th wedding anniversary in an opulent setting – it was later learnt that the venue was the luxurious Kaldan Samudra beach resort in Mamallapuram – with another woman, identified as Sushila, raised a storm as it was a surprise to many. It could also surprise outsiders that the openly held event – yes, a clutch of people are seen in the photographs – was a surprise when the local political culture allows leaders to take a second wife.
But the fact is that nobody expected Ramadoss to go open with his second marriage – it has to be the second only because he has completed 60 years with his known wife Saraswthi - though there has been persistent whispers about a secret liaison with a nurse that only gathered more strength after he had a fight with his son, Anbumani Ramadoss, leading to an informal split in the party. So, the questions that arise from last week’s development are why did Ramadoss allow that to happen and will the storm raised by it be confined to the PMK or have an impact on the State in general, particularly the coming 2026 Assembly elections.
Of course, controversies whipped up over marriages of leaders have never impacted electoral outcomes or diminished the popularity of political leaders even if their rivals are never tired of ‘exposing’ secret and scandalous affairs. But in the case of Ramadoss, it was different. As someone who has been in active politics for the past four decades and more earning a name for himself as an activist and fighter, he was never seen as a playboy having a ‘second home,’ which is a typical trait associated with politicians of the State, even if people within the State and outside of it may have so many grouses against him.
His detractors may call him a narrow-minded casteist, as one opposing marriages between couples of different castes solemnized without the permission of parents and with a retrograde mindset against modernism and so on but no one suspected that he would be such a traditionalist believing in bigamy and being influenced by the ‘other’ woman in taking political decisions. Though modern history will throw up too many anecdotes of ‘other’ women influencing political leaders in varied ways in Tamil Nadu, Ramadoss, the avowed teetotaler with an aversion to alcohol, was considered as a ‘family man.’
In the past he had only been accused of having extraordinary filial affections and promoting his son in all possible ways. First the son was made an Union Minister making use of an opportunity given to the PMK for its good faring in the elections and then was even entrusted with the responsibility of running the party by sidelining long-time loyalists. Ramadoss also tried to promote his grandson and even a daughter in the party. But all those acts of open nepotism were within the confines of the accepted ‘family’ frontiers.
So when the photographs of Ramadoss and Sushila appeared on social media it was a shock to even some persons who had prior knowledge about the secret liaison between the doctor and the nurse because it was a closely guarded secret. kept away from the prying eyes of outsiders. Then when it was told that it was the 50th anniversary celebration, it led to the raising of many eyebrows because Sushila is now said to be 68 years, as per some reports, and 66 years by others. Going by any of the reports, she was at least 18 years when Ramadoss had taken her as his second wife. Was that an age for a young woman to be lured into a relationship by a married, adult and educated medical doctor, some are wondering.
The qualified doctor may have his own reasons to justify what others might call a seduction but stories are now tumbling out of social media about their relationship. People who knew Ramadoss since his days as a political activist fighting for the rights of his community under the Vanniyar Sangam banner, say that Sushila joined the ramshackle clinic that the young doctor with a social consciousness ran near Tindivanam and served the local community by charging low consultation fees. No one exactly knows if she is a trained nurse or not but she helped him run the clinic effectively, mainly by regulating patients by issuing priority tokens that even earned her the sobriquet ‘Token Aaya.’
How a romance blossomed, how it bloomed and how it fructified has enough grist for a future Netflix series. But people want to know if Ramadoss took permission from his family members and also that of Sushila’s before the inter-caste marriage, as he himself insists.
