Unity despite diversity: Cadre of Dravidian majors on joint service

The coronavirus induced lockdown has restricted the movement of even party workers and they are examples of bonhomie sprouting between AIADMK and DMK cadre to carry out relief works among the people.

One such interesting incident happened at Chinnamannur Municipality in Theni, where DMK and AIADMK youngsters have joined together in distributing free rice and vegetables for villagers.

“We started distributing rice and vegetables after mobilising them through local traders. After noticing our work, Municipal Commissioner Shyamala and Sanitary Inspector Senthil Ramkumar advised us to work as a team comprising others. Now, AIADMK workers have also joined us and police help us to reach the cordoned off areas,” said R Muthu Kumar, a banana trader based in Chinnamannur, who comes from a DMK family. This is a disaster relief work for our town, so we youngsters got united, but politically we will be rivals, Muthu Kumar added.

Meanwhile, MLAs and former councilors too are now working on political strategies to reach out to the public. The MLAs are competing to procure five-kilo rice bags, masks, sanitisers and vegetables for their constituency.

The arch-rivals, AIADMK and DMK functionaries are also gauging the relief work undertaken by the opposite camps. “The traders are kept busy by both AIADMK and DMK functionaries. Five-kilo bags of rice and half kilo dhal packets are moving fast as relief materials,” said Jothi Raj, a wholesale trader in Central Chennai. Though other national and regional parties have also started relief works, only DMK and AIADMK functionaries are vibrant on the field. The BJP state president L Murugan had also started distribution of free relief bags from Kamalalayam, the BJP headquarters.

The sudden low profile being maintained by Health Minister C Vijaya Baskar has raised many an eyebrow of several AIADMK seniors. They wondered why the Minister has cut down his public relation activities, particularly the regular press briefings. Though the Minister is part of all the Chief Minister review meetings with corona special task force, Health Secretary Beela Rajesh is now giving the daily press briefings.

According to reliable sources, Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami has advised the officers to share coronavirus related details to ensure that outbreak is not politicised by the Opposition. Further AIADMK seniors also hinted that Palaniswami has clipped the publicity wings of over-enthusiastic Ministers like Vijaya Baskar and Rajenthra Bhalaji.

In the past one week, the Minister had also skipped the press conferences and is avoiding scribes, quite unusual for the vociferous Minister. Former Congress legislator MK Vishnu Prasad had also tweeted asking about the sudden absenteeism of the popular Health Minister in the daily corona update press briefings. “Has the Health Minister been quarantined?

The people are eager to know about the physical and mental Health of the Minister,” tweeted Vishnu Prasad who is also a medical practitioner. However, the Chief Minister’s office has given a free hand to a team of Ministers, top bureaucrats and MLAs to go ahead with public relief works.

According to AIADMK sources, the publicity events by the 46-year-old Health Minister has not gone well among the supporters of the Chief Minister. Even before the corona battle was won, the supporters of Ministers started putting up memes and tweets projecting the leadership skills of the Pudukkottaibased politician.

The Minister is blessed with oratorical skills, but in case if the corona episode goes skewed it will reflect on the partyleadership and this had been briefed to both the party leaders Palaniswami and party convener O Panneerselvam, sources said.

“The AIADMK government has given clear instructions to the Ministers and the bureaucrats. They have been advised not to go overboard, but keep focused onreducing the infection rate,” an informed AIADMK legislator told DT Next. There is no restriction for the Ministers to release their public relief pictures through the public information department, but there are restrictions in place due to COVID-19 lockdown, the source added. However, there is no restriction for the party spokespersons to campaign about the state’s anticorona measures.