NO REAL TAMIL-SPEAKING LEADERS IN TN!

The Tamil Nadu BJP is on cloud nine following the two-day visit of partys national president Amit
Shah to Chennai. D Napoleon, the film star-turned-DMK politician joining the BJP in the presence of
Shah, was the best thing which has happened to the saffron party in recent times. But there are more
things that do not meet the untrained eyes in the internal dynamics of Tamil Nadu politics.

Since 1969, when Karunanidhi was elected by the then undivided DMK to head the Government following
the unexpected demise of CN Annadurai, the partys life and soul, nobody other than non-Tamils had
become the Chief Minister of the State. O Panneerselvam, of course, is a Tamil. But he himself tells
everybody that his tenure is only a stopgap arrangement.
Unknown to most people inside and outside Tamil Nadu is the truth that M Karunanidhi, the self-styled
leader of Tamils all over the world, is a Telugu by birth. He is a Telugu born in Tirukkuvalai in Thiruvarur
district in the composite Madras Presidency. Whether he likes it or not, Dr Kalaignar (as he wants people
to address him. Kalaignar is the Tamil for the greatest scholar in arts and literature!) is the descendent of
Telugu-speaking parents and his mother tongue is Telugu. Old timers in Tamil Nadu reminiscence Dr
Kalaignars friendship with another great son of Andhra Pradesh, who literally over-turned Andhra
politics with his slogan, The Telugu pride, the legendary N T Rama Rao, who took the Congress bastion
by storm.
The Tamil pride for which Karunanidhi fights is his way of thanking Tamils for hosting and accepting him.
Tamil Nadus tryst with non-Tamil leaders does not end with Dr Kalaignar. MG Ramachandran, who was
ousted by Karunanidhi from the DMK and who succeeded him as the Chief Minister was a Sri Lankaborn-Keralite whose mother tongue was chaste Malayalam. So long as MGR was alive, Karunanidhi was
in political wilderness.
Following the death of MGR, the AIADMK was taken over by Jayalalithaa Jayaraman, a Mandya
(Mysore)-born Iyengar whose mother tongue is Kannada. But Jayalalithaa speaks Tamil, Telugu,
Malayalam, English and Hindi with ease and poise.
Others who are in line to occupy the Chief Ministers chair in Tamil Nadu too are non-Tamils.
Vijayakanth, the DMDK leader, is a Telugu. The hardcore Tamil nationalist and rationalist Vaiko (whose
original name is Vayapuri Gopalasamy, which he changed it to Vaiko as per astrological advise !) too is a
Telugu born to Andhra parents. Vaiko, who was once portrayed as the future Chief Minister of Tamil
Nadu, though it is doubtful whether he would be able to win an election without the support of the DMK
or the AIADMK or the BJP.
The new recruit to the Congress in Tamil Nadu, yesteryear film actress Khushboo, is a Punjabi Muslim.
Rajnikanth, the Tamil matinee idol, about whom the BJP had great hopes and was also projected as a
Chief Minister material, is a Mysore born Marathi. This could be the reason why the BJP was interested in
projecting the Style Mannan (king of styles) as their leader. Sunday saw D Napoleon, the DMK strongman
from Tiruchirapalli, joining the BJP. Interestingly, Napoleon too is a Telugu Reddiar whose physique
speaks volumes about his lineage and pedigree.
And finally about EV Ramasamy Naicker, the founder of the Dravida movement in Tamil Nadu. His
biographers state that he was born in a Kannada Balija Naidu family settled in Erode. But a senior scribe
in Chennai who has a passion for drawing out ancestral lineages of politicians, says that EVR is from
Andhra Pradesh whose mother tongue was Telugu.The search for a true Tamil nationalist may take some
more time.to materialise.
A veteran political analyst has found out the reason for the failure of the Vanniyar dominated PMK to
make it to the big league. The party is full of Tamil speaking leaders!