Tamil Nadu, our
neighbouring State ruled by Kumari J.Jayalalitha, the all powerful leader of
All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam is infamous for its regional
chauvinism. For that matter except national parties like Indian National
Congress, Bharathiya Janata Party, the two Communist parties – they are only a
minority there – the principal Opposition party Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK)
and a few splinter regional parties like MDMK, DMDK, PMK etc. Tamil Nadu, once a bastion of Indian National Congress, for decades forfeited
its power which ultimately evolved into a minority due to its irresponsibility
and inefficiency which provided a fertile ground for the birth as also growth
of regional entities and the regional outfits spread across the entire State
due to its leaders’ concern for the welfare and prosperity of the State. The regional
parties gradually shed or narrowed their national outlook and turned myopic, in
other words, the wider national outlook got shrunk and turned narrow-minded
which were always concerned with its regional interests. They, by usurping
power after defeating the once powerful National party like Indian National
Congress at the hustings occupied the saddle and ruled the State always keeping
the interests and needs of the masses and tried their level best to extract the
maximum from the Central govt through collective bargaining. Through agitations
and conducting demonstrations the Dravida parties, be it DMK or AIADMK, MDMK,
DMDK, PMK all can be categorized as regional chauvinists, sorry, this is not an
insult to them but a tendency on their part – demanded their due from the
Central govt and through agitations and demonstrations finally succeeded and
forced the Centre to grant them whatever they demanded for the prosperity of
their State. While Indian National Congress ruled the State for a fairly long
period, its leaders maintained a pan-Indian outlook due to it being a national
party with a national outlook and could not care enough for the immediate needs
of the State and utilizing its apathy – which was not intentional – a few
leaders with regional outlook keeping in mind regional interests first,
gradually snatched power from the Congress by bringing the masses under their
umbrellas. A single Dravida movement in due course got split into various
entities and among them two parties Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and All India
Dravida Munnetra Kazhaga turned out to be two big regional parties. It is part
of history that these two parties alternately rule the State since decades.
The regional chauvinism
turned out be beneficial for the State and it being a factor keeping the
interests of the State only, the national outlook which too is an essential
factor was swept under the carpet.
I am constrained to
write about the narrow outlook of the Dravida movements due to a unilateral
attitude taken by Kumari Jayalalitha two or three days back. Dravida parties’
intolerance of the Sinhala govt of Sri Lanka is known to all due to the latter’s
fight against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE) under the late
Veluppilla Prabhakaran for decades which ultimately led to the near decimation
of LTTE and the brutal killing of Prabhakaran. From the very moment of
Tamilians of Sri Lanja who constitute a sizeable population of Sri Lanka got
mauled by the Raj Paksa govt launching fierce attacks against them, the enmity of
Tamilians against the Sinhalese mounted who constitute the majority in Sri
Lanka, Tamil Nadu’s antipathy towards the former aggravated.
The vengeance with which Tamilians of the
State grew since the day LTTE and its leaders were eliminated is so intense
that a sort of ‘Xenophobia’ developed towards the Sri Lankans and everything
Sri Lankan was looked upon with anger and suspicion.
This animosity towards
the Sri Lankans couldn’t change the friendly attitude of Central govt towards
Sri Lanka. Hence, the Central govt green-signalled the start of a joint military
exercise by the armies of both countries to take place in Tamil Nadu. The angry
State govt and the entire Tamil Nadu got enraged and took up cudgels against
the Central govt, demanded it to put a halt to the joint military exercise
forthwith. A visibly shaken govt in its effort to placate the Tamilians decided
to shift the venue of the joint exercise to another State. That also didn’t go down
well with the Tamilians. Anyhow, for the time-being they decided to keep a low
profile. In the mean time, a school football team arrived from Sri Lanka to
conduct practices with the students of Tamil Nadu and an indignant Kumari
Jayalalitha demanded the deportation of the students from Sri Lanka. Accordingly
they were packed to Sri Lanka within no time fearing violent repercussions.
Later a group of Catholic
pilgrims from Sri Lanka landed in Tamil Nadu with the intention of visiting
some shrines in the State. While they were undertaking a travel by bus, some irate
Tamilians stoned the buses and as a result the wind shields and window panes of
the vehicles were broken. An interesting and at the same time unfortunate fact
is that among the pilgrims there were Tamilians too. If the mob who attacked
the buses had known about it would they have gone to the extent of throwing
stones aiming the vehicles? The pilgrims too had to fly back to Sri Lanka
without completing their pilgrimage. All under the very nose of Kumari Jayalalitha
govt… If this be the case will the Sri Lankan Cricket team dare to visit India and
play against the Indian Cricket team?
The intensity of
regional chauvinism needs no more examples. While keeping the interests of the
State in mind, why can’t the State govt keep a wider national outlook too? It is
a shame that in a democratic nation where Unity in diversity is the motto a
State nurturing only its self-interest is something deplorable too.
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