Awards ≠ Votes

The BJP’s strategy to honour a number of dignitaries from Tamil Nadu this Republic Day, as evidenced by the declaration of civilian awards, may not fetch the expected electoral dividends. For, a similar tactic adopted by the then PM Rajiv Gandhi miserably failed in the run-up to the assembly polls more than three decades ago in TN. He conferred the highest civilian award of Bharat Ratna on M G Ramchandran. But despite this, the Congress came a cropper in the state polls that ensued thereafter.