DMK ‘regrets’ scoring two ‘own goals’ in a week

CHENNAI: The ruling DMK is going through a sense of 'remorse' after experiencing exhaustive episodes of bad publicity in a short stint. The buzz in Anna Arivalayam is that tweaking the liquor license policy and Factories Amendment Act were evitable political misadventures.

Highly placed government sources disclosed to the DMK on condition of anonymity that the top brass in the ruling party were upset over the two moves, which has earned considerable bad publicity for the government that enjoyed an extended honeymoon of two-years without many embarrassing controversies.

Though the ruling DMK has kept the Factories Amendment Bill in abeyance to win back the confidence of allies and revised the liquor license GO, many party seniors felt that obliging industry to tweak the provisions relating to working hours of the people was a serious miscalculation.

The two decisions, which are understood to have been done at the prodding of select officials/ministers of industries and prohibition departments, has also enabled critics to raise doubts about the Chief Minister's (mis) judgement on what was a policy decision that goes directly against the established principles of the DMK. A highly-placed government source disclosed that the Chief Minister was unhappy that the reputation earned through two years of good work was undone in a week. "For the first time since the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, we have found ourselves isolated. More than the opposition, our own allies ganged up against us. When they raised ideological questions against us, it dealt a blow to the campaign we engaged in during the last few years. Offering fodder for the opposition and antagonising the allies was a double whammy ahead of an election year," said a DMK senior on condition of anonymity.

To make matters worse, the controversial audio tapes allegedly attributed to PTR and the ongoing I-T raids in G-Square related places claimed by the opposition to be close to the DMK's first family has taken the wind out of the sails of the DMK. "For over a decade, our alliance has been levelling corruption allegations against the AIADMK and BJP. The tables have turned, at least briefly, against our alliance after the raids and audio tapes. Truth or fabricated, the audio tapes popularized by the BJP is contributing to the bad press against us. It might have a limited shelf life, but it has given some substance to the opposition to train their guns at us," said a senior leader of one of the DMK allies.

However, DMK insiders exuded confidence that the media glare would fall on some other issue and the people were aware of the raids 'unleashed' on the opposition parties by the BJP led union government. "There is a pattern in such raids. Targets of central agencies have become predictable. The people are aware that the raids are politically motivated. It is just an attempt to arm-twist the opposition to secure political advantage," said a DMK leader, putting up a brave face.