Tamil Nadu Assembly elections are less than a month away and the campaign is heating up with every leader of any political party of any relevance hitting the campaign trail. This is the first assembly election I am observing since I came back to Chennai and things are very different from the ones I had seen when MGR was around.
Thanks to technology, electioneering has come to the living rooms in Tamil Nadu. With the Tamil Cable Channels heavily polarized, you get totally divergent views delivered right via the stupid box. (If Mr. Karunanidhi has his way, then every household will have one.)
While Amma and Sarath Kumar fill Jaya TV, its reach is no match to the multi channel delivery capability of Sun network. While Jaya TV has to contend with taped broadcasts of various interviews and election events, Sun TV is flexing its muscle by deploying direct telecast vans and beaming the speeches of various DPA leaders directly as they deliver it across Tamil Nadu. I got to listen to Mr. Chidambaram via one such telecast.
I have always considered Mr. Chidambaram to be cut above the rest in Tamil Nadu politics, so I was disturbed by his spiteful speech against Ms. Jayalalitha. Instead of attacking her policies and political plays, he chose to attack her at personal level about her caste and background. He went to the extent of castigating her as an outsider who is doing business in Tamil Nadu implicitly raking the Aryan / Dravidian controversy.
Mr. Chidambaram, I have lot of respect for your stewardship of Indian Finance, Why are you stooping so low when it comes to Ms. Jayalalitha?
yup... i was dismayed hearing Chidambaram... i had too much respect for him to see him get down to 'dayanithi maran level'
ReplyDeleteRam, I think you are first time hearing this from Chidambarm. By the way, its a irony that a person who accept a foreign-born as his leader comment about a person who atleast born in the soil. Its all for the vote and for power..God bless Tamilnadu politics.
ReplyDeleteRam
ReplyDeleteYes.. He still comes across as a decent guy.. but I guess, even he will stoop low for the sake of power..
Sundaresan
Yes.. That was the first political speech I listened for Chidambaram.. it was in a very bad taste..
Election fever is at its zenith in TN now..
I've heard far too much abt Chidambaram to be surprised abt this...
ReplyDeleteTo my mind, he just looks sophisticated. thats all...
Since he looks clean shaven and well read he gets away with it all.
For eg, there is one mill somewhere down south whose directorship consists of Mr. Chidambaram, Mrs. Chidambaram and Karthik Chidambaram.
I heard this particular mill has been given excise duty relief to the tune of several crores which was completely out of the norms.
Honestly, regarding financial and economic policies i dont see any difference in the way things go. It's all the straight globalisation route no matter who is the FM.
Prabhu
ReplyDeleteI knew he is very rich.. but didn't know the mill story..
Yes.. globalization is changing the financial landscape.. but you still need someone apt to steer the ship..
I was also surprised that PC who in his capacity of FM argues against subsidy and populist measures, defends MK's promises of rice at Rs 2/kg, colour TV, etc as 'sensible', "feasible',et. Politics and hypocrisy are synonyms, I guess .
ReplyDeleteI was also surprised that PC who in his capacity of FM argues against subsidy and populist measures, defends MK's promises of rice at Rs 2/kg, colour TV, etc as 'sensible', "feasible',et. Politics and hypocrisy are synonyms, I guess .
ReplyDeleteRaj
ReplyDeleteIt's gravy train on a roll in Tamil Nadu.. by both parties..
PC has to defend MK's promises whether he likes them or not.. The economist in him must be against all this..