Testing times for ruling DMK as many allies pile up pressure on slew of issues

CHENNAI: The INDIA bloc led by DMK in the State is supposedly facing a tough time as a strain in ties is felt with many of its allies piling up pressure.

While minor allies like Tamilaga Valvurimai Katchi MLA T Velmurugan sought to move a special call attention in the upcoming Assembly session on issues that could discomfit the State government, CPM went to the extent of questioning the state of democracy in Tamil Nadu in the incumbent regime led by Chief Minister MK Stalin.

An uncompromising CPM state secretary, K Balakrishnan, whose party has been critical of the DMK regime on sensitive issues like Samsung workers’ protest and the alleged divestment of 500 private schools, fired a fresh salvo from his party’s three-day conference. Speaking at the conference in Villupuram, Balakrishnan asked CM if the “State was going through an undeclared emergency.”

The Marxist party State secretary fired volleys on the state government for denying permission to protest by political parties on the Anna University sexual assault incident. Ally CPM was in line with the opposition BJP, and AIADMK is now charging the DMK regime with being undemocratic on this issue.

Not surprisingly, the comment angered the DMK enough to question the CPM leader’s motives. State HR&CE minister PK Sekarbabu responded to the leaders’ jibe and asked, “Till the day before yesterday, he (Balakrishnan) was praising the State government. I don’t know what unsettled him now. The government will address his requirement. Undeclared emergency prevailed only under the previous (AIADMK) regime.”

Understandably, the minister’s equally witty remarks prompted a few netizens to ask if the Dravidian major was doubting the integrity of the Communists in public. As if the damage caused by the CPM leaders were not enough, reports surfaced that another ally, VCK, has issued notice to the State Assembly secretariat to move special call attention motions during the upcoming Assembly session to discuss the Vengaivayal issue and the Anna University sexual assault case.

It was not uncommon to find political observers scrutinising the timing of the discomfiture caused by allies to the ruling DMK, more so when the AU sexual assault case had already put the government on the back foot. DMK insiders were not averse to admitting that their allies, mainly the statement of leaders like Balakrishnan and VCK’s Thol Thirumavalavan, were contributing to bad press as much as the opposition. Curiously, DMK seniors familiar with the developments reasoned that, on the condition of anonymity, there was no reason to read into the statements of allies to the extent of fracturing the alliance.

“It is indeed an irritant to the government. It is bad publicity for the government when an ally uses terms like undeclared emergency. It is up to them to decide if their choice of vocabulary is appropriate. They (allies) probably do it to save their reputation ahead of an election year, and that too when the Opposition is going full throttle on the issue. None of our allies are even contemplating a disruption to the alliance at the moment,” said a senior DMK leader unwilling to be named.

DMK leaders who opined on the political situation privately cited the pressure mounted by allies earlier during the labour law amendment mooted by the government and subsequently revoked it to convince them that all was well in the alliance. “Much was spoken a fortnight ago when the VCK raised a debate on power share in the state government. What happened after that? Similar (provocative) statements were also made during the Samsung workers’ strike. Did the alliance fall apart? Our leadership will handle it as it deems fit,” said a state-level functionary of the DMK. One cannot avoid overlooking the confidence of the DMK leaders, considering the reasoning of alliance leaders like Balakrishnan, Thiruma and Mutharasan that their statements were constructive and their friendly jibes only helped in course correction.

Unmindful of the reasoning offered by the DMK and allies privately, it is evident that the allies were not so happy with the state of affairs of the government, and the ruling dispensation was visibly upset with the allies’ reaction to what appears to be a testing time for the government.