The Hindu Business Line : Mission behind the omission!

If there was any doubt whether the AICC General-Secretary, Mr Rahul Gandhi, on a hectic tour of Tamil Nadu for three days (September 8-10), wanted to use his visit to make a pointed political statement, it was quickly dispelled by his finding time to meet the Governor, Mr Surjit Singh Barnala, but conspicuously avoiding even a courtesy call on the Chief Minister, Mr M. Karunanidhi.

Of course, Mr Gandhi came out with the usual sound-bytes about professing great respect for the leader who had ‘given direction to the State’ and regarding the DMK as a ‘solid ally’, but it was plain, especially when one takes note of the contrasting treatment as between Mr Barnala and Mr Karunanidhi, that Mr Gandhi was determined to skirt the latter, knowing full well that this will be taken as an affront and raise the hackles of the DMK.

Personal decision?

All the more so because it would certainly not be construed as Mr Gandhi’s personal decision, but one which he must have got cleared beforehand from the President of the Congress and Chairperson of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA), Ms Sonia Gandhi. Thus, it assumes far greater significance than a mere faux pas or a genuine inability to fit it in Mr Gandhi’s schedule. Hence, nobody can be accused of reading more into it than warranted.

The same thought must have been passing through the mind of Mr Karunanidhi as well. This is evident from his response while speaking at a wedding reception (a trademark occasion used by Dravidian parties for as long as they have existed to indulge in political broadsides). He issued a kind of warning to those who thought they could get the better of the DMK, which had overcome many challenges, including, he darkly mentioned, the oppression during the Emergency of Indira Gandhi.

Knowing how sensitive Mr Karunanidhi’s political antennae were, the Congress President-cum-UPA Chairperson and the AICC General Secretary must have factored the DMK patriarch’s possible bristling also into their calculations. From every standpoint, therefore, there is more to the seeming political lapse than meets the eye.

Contumacious curmudgeons

So, what message was the calculated miss intended to convey? Let us put the question in different ways. For instance: What did the mother and son feel the Congress and/or the UPA would be giving away, even by a mere courtesy call for a few minutes, draping each other with shawls, followed by a photo-op? Or what signals did the duo want to, or not want to, give to Mr Karunanidhi, the DMK, the political formations in Tamil Nadu and the allies and adversaries at the national level by this deliberate omission?

The only interpretation that suggests itself is that the Congress has had enough of alternately currying favours with the DMK and AIADMK, and has initiated the process of distancing itself from both of them and establishing its own distinct identity before the next Assembly election.

This is corroborated by Mr Gandhi’s exhortation to the State executive to the effect: “Don’t continue to ride on the back of two major Dravidian parties. Work hard and refurbish the image of the party.”

It may well be that his own intense campaigning in Tamil Nadu is part of a massive effort at ridding the party of contumacious curmudgeons, re-energising it with young blood and holding elections from panchayat level upwards to strengthen inner-party democracy to enable it to go all out to recapture the State for the Congress for the first time since 1967. In short, a repetition of the Rahul experiment in the UP, making appropriate allowances for the special conditions in Tamil Nadu.

Here’s wishing the young man all the success he deserves!

B. S. RAGHAVAN