Karunanidhi : End of an era
The patriarch of Tamil identity and politics since the last eight decades, DMK president Muthuvel Karunanidhi has breathed his last at the age of 94. His persona wasn’t limited to politics alone. He was an MLC for nearly seven and half decades, and a Chief Minister for five terms and an active script writer for Tamil cinema for 50 years. If anything, Karunanidhi led a very colourful life that will remain unparalleled for many generations to come. He would have turned a centenarian in the next five years time. In his death, the last link to Dravida movement is lost forever.
He was a matchless writer and an excellent orator. He took over the reins of DMK from founder Annadurai in 1960, and he never looked back after that. Having come from very humble background, the rise of Karunanidhi is nothing less than that of a miracle. He climbed the pinnacle of success after facing way too many challenges. His accomplishments are no mean feat.
He was inspired at a very young age of 14, by Periyar Ramaswamy Nair, a rationalist who promoted a movement of tamil pride. Karunanidhi shared an unflinching bond with tamil film industry too. He wrote dialogues to many films and used that platform to promote his ideals, and thoughts. He firmly stood guard of Tamil Nadu, ensuring either Congress or BJP wouldn’t set their feet in the Dravida state. He never compromised on his ideals and rationales.
He was deeply influenced by left ideology in his early days and had even named his son Stalin, after the influential Russian revolutionary. An atheist to the core, he never visited any temples or places of worship or conducted any rituals.He had condemned the razing of Babri Masjid in 1992 by communal elements. He even voiced his criticism against the burning of Ravana idols during Ramleela events. He opposed the idea floated by Sangh Parivar on Ram Setu issue, asking proof to bolster the claim on the bridge being built by Lord Rama more than 17 lakh years ago.
He had maintained his distance from Mutts and religious institutions. Once Kanchi Kamakoti seer came to visit him, and this naturally held traction for the media and they gathered around Karunanidhi’s office. While the footage was being aired live, the Kanchi seer gifted Karunanidhi with a copy of Bhagavad Gita. His idea may have been to observe the response of Karunanidhi, and see if he would be embarrassed or something. The media persons were naturally very curious to watch the reaction.
Karunanidhi received the copy of the Bhagavad Geetha book, and in return, he gifted a book written by one of his followers Veerasami that was a critical analysis of Bhagavad Gita. Swamiji was forced to receive this return gift without contesting much. This is a testimony to Karunanidhi’s commitment to rationalism.
He had resisted the imposition of hindi by north India centric politics and fought to maintain the tamil pride all his life. But ever since Narendra Modi assumed office, hindi is being imposed on south Indian states. Karunanidhi had faith in the pluralism of India. He always opposed the hindutva mandate of Sangh parivar. He did not compromise on his rationalism even though he supported Vajpayee's NDA government. He will always be the king of people’s hearts since he took DMK party close to the people. Known for his political acumen, Karunanidhi brought Shivaji Ganeshan, M G Ramachandran and others to the forefront of Tamil cinema. But then choosing his own son as offsprings to lead the DMK party was widely criticized. People like Vaiko and others quit the party and joined the others or floated their own party. Karunanidhi looked rather helpless to see the communal forces make an entry into Tamil politics in the recent times.
Sangh parivar extended its wings in Tamil Nadu through names such as ‘Hindu Munnani’ in the last decade. Tamil Nadu which was known for its most rational thoughts had to ban a book written by Perumal Murugan, owing to the pressure exerted by communal forces. Though he’d obviously take sides of Tamil Nadu on Cauvery river water sharing issue, he was all for amicable settlement of this issue. He shared very good relationship with leaders from Karnataka. He had come to Karnataka to unveil the statue of poet Thiruvalluvar and has unveiled the statue of poet Sarvajna who wrote in Kannada.
With Karunanidhi’s death, a pall of gloom has descended over Tamil Nadu. Last year the state lost another leader such as J Jayalalitha. Now with Karunanidhi gone, both parties lack good cadre level leader who knows his way up. Though Stalin’s name is being heard, his acumen needs to stand the test of time. It is during such occasions that BJP’s Amit Shah would try to set his foot on Tamil soil. How would the Dravida parties and people respond? This would be a matter of interest in the coming days.
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ECI website faces outage amid vote counting in Jharkhand, Maharashtra
New Delhi: Election Commission of India’s official results website ‘results.eci.gov.in’ has reportedly experienced a technical outage on Saturday morning, at a time when India closely watches the high-stakes Maharashtra and Jharkhand assembly poll battle.
Visitors visiting the site were met with non-functional links and a generic “counting in progress” message, leaving them without updated election data. The ECI has not issued an official explanation for the disruption.
Vote counting, which began at 8 a.m. with postal ballots, is underway for 288 assembly seats in Maharashtra and 81 in Jharkhand. Early trends suggest a lead for the BJP-led Mahayuti alliance in Maharashtra, currently ahead in 141 seats, while the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) is leading in 96. In Jharkhand, the BJP-led NDA is ahead in 43 seats, while the ruling JMM-led alliance is trailing with leads in 33 constituencies.
Additionally, counting is underway for 48 assembly bypolls across 13 states and two parliamentary seats, Nanded in Maharashtra and Wayanad in Kerala.
