From teacher to politico to conviction, a giant’s fall

CHENNAI: The life of Kandasamy Ponmudy aka Deivasigamani, the man of the moment in Tamil Nadu politics on Thursday, is a textbook case of political ascent in Dravidian politics.

Like many senior leaders in the Dravidian parties, at least those in the DMK, Ponmudy also had a humble beginning. The son of a family of teachers from south Arcot district, K Deivasigamani started as an inspirational speaker on the stages of Dravidar Kazhagam before he did away with a theist name and rechristened himself as Ponmudy. Like his teacher parents, Ponmudy had an academically sound start.

Armed with MA each in History, Public Administration, and Social Science, he went on to do a comparative study on the Black Movement in America and the Dravidian Movement in Tamil Nadu for his PhD, which, along with the already earned small-time political connections, drew the attention of political bigwigs like Kalaignar M Karunanidhi, who was a two-time Chief Minister of the state by then.

A professor at the Government Arts College in Villupuram, Ponmudy struck the iron when it was hot. He quit teaching and with it, the government job and took the political plunge.

After having successfully won his maiden election in the 1989 Assembly polls from the Villupuram constituency, lady luck smiled on him when Karunanidhi, in his third term as CM, appointed him, a first-time MLA the State Health Minister.

Ponmudy began his career with a bang by securing a Cabinet berth, something not given to then district secretary Gingee Ramachandran till then. When Vaiko engineered a rebellion and floated MDMK by poaching district secretaries like Gingee Ramachandran, the doors of the future opened wide for him.

Since then Ponmudy continued as the secretary of the Villupuram district till his elevation to the level of Deputy General Secretary of the party in recent years.

Identified as a close confidant of Chief Minister MK Stalin, the then DMK youth wing secretary, Ponmudy held transport plus Highway portfolios in the 1996-2001 DMK regime and later the Higher Education ministry in the 2006-11 DMK regime.

A man known not to mince words, Ponmudy also has the reputation for speaking out his mind in the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly and in public. He also paid the price for speaking straight from his shoulder. He was arrested once for ‘trespassing’ into a PDS facility to prove former chief minister Jayalalithaa wrong about the quality of PDS rice and later allegedly for retorting to Jayalalithaa in the House about the nationalisation of liquor sale in the state. His outspoken nature earned enough enemies within the party too. He was chided by Stalin as recently as this year when he made an innocuous but unwitty remark about the free bus travel for women in the state, so much so that Stalin warned against his ministers being loose cannons.

His successor Rajakannappan would have huge shoes to fill considering the witty retorts of Ponmudy against the Governor for convening a conference of Vice-Chancellors and not approving the files of the state government.

A career, which began as a teacher, suffered a blow on Thursday and has left many