Among the various changes the new government in Tamil Nadu has ushered in is coalition rule. Though coalition governments have been there in many States and also at the Centre for a long time, Tamil Nadu never had a coalition government since 1952 when the Congress party roped in a few parties to form a government under Rajaji. Neither of the Dravidian majors ever experimented with the idea of coalition even when they did not manage to get the required numbers for government formation. Late DMK leader M Karunanidhi successfully ran a government that his beta noir J Jayalalithaa repeatedly called a ‘minority government’ from 2006 to 2011, taking ‘outside support’ from parties like the Congress, PMK, CPI and CPM.
Though the DMK had then won just 96 seats in the 234 member Assembly, it did not give in to the pressure to include alliance partners in the ministry. Otherwise the DMK and AIADMK always managed to get a simple majority since 1967 when the Congress was thrown out. Why the Dravidian majors were averse to the idea of coalition governments in the State is not quite clear since they had aligned with parties in the Centre and even enjoyed benefits by nominating their members to the Union Cabinet. But C Joseph Vijay, founder of the Tamilaga Vetri Kazhagam (TVK), who turned many things upside down in Tamil Nadu politics, gave ministerial berths in his Cabinet to some parties that supported him in the vote of confidence in the Assembly and set a new trend.
However, some ethical questions were raised over the new trend. DMK deputy general secretary A Raja was a wee bit acerbic when he crudely compared a political party winning seats in an alliance and then seeking Cabinet posts from a rival party to a married woman looking for pleasure with another man. But it was the retort from one of the parties he was referring to in harsh terms that was more revealing and explained why it was not unethical to shack up with another party. The VCK said that it was no slave bound to any political party and that by joining the TVK government it only taught a historic lesson to those playing fake social justice politics. It was a direct attack on the DMK, which was accused of exploiting allies as vote banks without giving any share in the power.
Indeed that was the grudge nursed by many small parties that fought elections in alliance with big parties and ended up with nothing more than a few MLA seats when the coalition leader took away all the benefits. In the Congress that had been in a long-time association with the DMK, some leaders had been raising the issue in various forums including social media for quite some time. In the run up to the Assembly elections, too, they expressed resentment over the short shrift given to the party by the DMK and even delayed the finalization of the alliance. The national party was also in open talks with the fledgling TVK, sidestepping the long-time ally, DMK.
Though the Congress finally won only five seats, when the alliance was negotiated, it managed to wrest a Rajya Sabha nomination from the DMK. But once the results came out, the Congress switched its loyalty to the TVK that had emerged as the single largest party by dumping the DMK. So some raised an ethical question over ditching the DMK that gave a Rajya Sabha nomination to the party. But then politics is not a forum where one talks about ethics. Keeping up the value system in politics, the Congress joined the ministry led by Vijay and realized the dream of finding a place in the government, 59 years after it lost power to the DMK.
The post-election switch of loyalty to the TVK was also justified by the acolytes of the Congress because the DMK, as alliance leader, had stymied its aspiration to be part of the government during the pre-poll alliance talks. It was in lieu of ministerial berths in a future government, if it was formed, that the Congress was given the Rajya Sabha seat, which it happily took and then also took two ministerial berths from the TVK after the elections – an instance of having the cake and eating it too, which could happen only in alliance politics. But since the Congress won the five seats by opposing the TVK in all the 27 constituencies that it contested, some wonder if it was not a betrayal of the voters who chose them. Whoever voted for them did not want the TVK to come to power and if they helped that party form a government, is it not treachery?
But then, as it emerges now, there is nothing in politics sans the grand act of treason. . For the lure of power is so powerful that politicians go weak-kneed before it and forget principles, if at all they had any in the first place. But it is the betrayal of people in a post-poll coalition that is galling. It is a crime to switch camps as it goes against the voters’ wishes. Yet in a political milieu where voters themselves have no values or ethics in picking candidates and choosing parties, besides taking money to vote and not voting for the party that gave money, why blame the politicians.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: deccanchronicle.com
