Rajinikanth’s political foray has come too late
The movie star is neither an alternative to Dravidian politics nor a nondravidian proposition, as some claim
Rajinikanth has finally ended 20 years of drift and dilemma by announcing, on December 31, his decision to join politics and form a party. He hasn’t provided details of the party’s name or its ideology and electoral strategy, though. Sure, he has made his die-hard fans deliriously happy, but I am not convinced he will be able to capture the political imagination of the masses as a viable alternative in Tamil Nadu politics.
Rajinikanth’s decision comes 20 years too late and it comes at a time when Tamil Nadu’s politics is at a low and sinking further into a bottomless pit. He has acquired a seat in the power pantheon in Tamil Nadu owing to his matinee idol status and fan following.
It remains to be seen how political parties and the politically aware people of Tamil Nadu react to his announcement. I am sure both will ask tough questions, testing his political acumen. This is the divide that Rajinikanth may find difficult to breach, especially with a decade-long people’s movement gaining ground in Tamil Nadu and the politically active jallikattu generation becoming more vocal on social media and in political debates.
Rajinikanth is trapped between his fans’ wanting to reap the fruits of power and the BJP pushing him to the edge with its own desperate strategies to gain a toehold in Tamil Nadu politics. Rajinikanth says he does not want to contest the local body elections because of limited time and instead wants to prepare for the assembly elections in 2021. But he does not make any mention of the parliamentary elections in 2019. Is he not aware that there is talk of the BJP’S grand plan to draw and dump the ruling AIADMK into a political quagmire and call for President’s Rule in Tamil Nadu before 2018 ends and then simultaneously hold assembly and parliamentary elections in 2019 to enhance its bargaining power gained through political coercion?
Rajinikanth is a fellow traveller of the BJP and an advocate of soft Hindutva. He speaks of spiritual politics to camouflage his ideological leanings and asks his fans to become a vanguard against corruption. He conveniently forgets to mention the role of corporate capital in promoting his own movie projects. He is neither an alternative to Dravidian politics nor a non-dravidian proposition, as some claim. This is what Dravidian political parties are struggling to grasp. Before dismissing the threat posed by Rajnikanth, Dravidian parties would do well to study what happened in undivided Andhra Pradesh with actor Chiranjeevi who floated a small party that did well for some time before being ultimately swallowed by the Congress. There is a likelihood of the BJP doing the same in Tamil Nadu.