'Thalapathy' gets into leader’s attire

As a couple of exuberant years of his youthhood passed by, attempting to replicate his popular father known for his magniloquence, he had gradually forayed in to politics by organising informal meetings with a small band of contemporaries, whom he named youth group in 1966 and which later went on to become the party youth wing in 1983, indeed with the support of his father who quickly spotted the political acumen of his son who had by then successfully set his eyes on the ward, zonal and districts committees of the party, all by contesting in elections, as was claimed by him. 

The next elevation (general council member) had happened to him in 1974, two years ahead of the infamous MISA incarceration which went on to decorate the pages of ‘Murasoli’. He was Muthuvel Karunanidhi Stalin, the newly elected working president of the DMK who still holds the party youth wing secretary, a position created for him in 1983, when he was only 30. 

What started as a casual stroll in the city streets had catapulted Stalin to fame in 1989 when he made his Assembly debut from Thousand Lights. The end of the millennium saw the meteoric rise of Stalin to the office of Chennai Mayor in 1996 (first directly elected Chennai Mayor. He quit his office in the subsequent term following the dual post rule enforcement) and subsequently local administration minister and deputy chief minister in 2006-11 DMK regime followed by Leader of Opposition in mid-2016 before scaling the summit on Wednesday. 

In a political career spanning 48 years and decorated with many high and a few low points, plus a lot of painful waiting, Stalin had gone through a transformation worth elucidating.

From inaccessible to household name 

Once an inaccessible man, Stalin had gone through transformation from his time at the Mayoral office. Perhaps advised by a carefully chosen group of friends and officers, he became extremely choosy in picking his friends, mainly to keep controversies at bay. If the first half the first decade of 21st century ended the myth about him being introvert, the second half made him a people’s man who collected grievance petitions from morning joggers as deputy chief minister. While the Lok Sabha election of 2009 and 2011 Assembly election helped catch a glimpse of his electioneering skills, the publicity blitzkrieg “ Namakku Naame ” marked the denouement of his political transformation.

Like his father Karunanidhi, Stalin had also started with theatre and even ventured in to movies, but, unlike his father, his was neither successful nor elaborate ‘stage’ career.

Stalin’s stay in the tinsel world ended as fast as it began in the 1980s. Conversely, his father walked with the big names of kollywood, even penning for his onetime best buddy MGR, unlike his son who only ended scripting his own or playing cameos for a few TV shows. The similarity between the father and son also extends to the ideological plane. 

If Karunanidhi sporting a yellow shawl and entering Lord Brahadeeswarar Temple through the side gate during Raja Raja Chola millennium celebration disturbed their avid Periyar-following friends, his son faced the same criticism for visiting temples and churches besides accommodating dheekshitars during his Namakku Naame . Both were the favourites of pro-Tamil groups who relished lashing out at the DMK for the controversial stands it took during the last leg of the Eelam war. 

That Karunanidhi had forged an alliance with Vajpayee’s BJP in 1999 is something Stalin can take comfort in. Stalin has always been flanked by a select league of favourites in the party, an eye sore for many a party men still, while his father Karunanidhi has always been a good-to-all party president, something he should quickly master to avoid disillusionment in his flock. Another area where Stalin has been found wanting was his oratory. Statistical overdose in Stalin’s speech would never be a match to the literary abundance in his father’s oratory.