PMK youth wing leader Anbumani Ramadoss has strongly opposed the Tamil Nadu Government’s demand to posthumously confer the nation’s highest civilian award, the Bharat Ratna, to former Chief Minister and AIADMK leader Jayalalithaa. In an interview to B. Kolappan on Tuesday, the former Union Health Minister and Dharmapuri MP argued that the award must be given only to those who had an impeccable integrity and had made outstanding contribution towards the development of the country. Jayalalithaa would not fit into this category, he contended. Excerpts:
Do you think the death of former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa has caused a vacuum in Tamil Nadu politics?
Definitely it has created a political vacuum. The AIADMK was a “single person party” and after Jayalalithaa’s demise, the party leaders are rallying around her friend V.K. Sasikala as their only objective is to keep the party in power for the next four-and-a-half years. In my opinion, Ms. Sasikala cannot get any vote from the people. In all these years, she indulged in backroom politics and people have not even heard her voice. If Jayalalithaa was really interested in nurturing her as a successor, she would have given Ms. Sasikala some position in the party and in public life. In fact, Jayalalithaa was not particular even about the future of the AIADMK. Now, the AIADMK Government has urged the Centre to posthumously award the Bharat Ratna to Jayalalithaa. But she does not deserve the award. Jayalalithaa faced 15 cases of corruption and the judgement in the appeal against her acquittal in the case relating to amassment of wealth disproportionate to her known sources of income is pending in the Supreme Court. She was the only Chief Minister to have spent time in jail. She left the State in total disarray. Today, Tamil Nadu’s debt is a whopping Rs 5.10 lakh crore. The industrial growth in the State is the lowest in the country and agriculture registered negative growth during her regime.
The PMK has been seeking to emerge as an alternative to the two major Dravidian parties – the DMK and AIADMK. Do you think your party would benefit from the vacuum you are referring to?
The people of Tamil Nadu are fed up with the Dravidian parties and the political culture encouraged by them. Post-Jayalalithaa, the State is badly in need of a change and it will definitely help us in some way. We are nearing the end of the “personality-driven”, “empty-rhetoric” and “enmity-driven” politics of Dravidian parties. Both the AIADMK and the DMK cleverly played the game to keep other political parties from emerging as an alternative to them. Earlier, it was Karunanidhi versus MGR and it was followed by Karunanidhi versus Jayalalithaa. Ms. Sasikala cannot benefit from this enmity-driven politics and Mr. Panneerselvam is a very docile leader. People are desperately looking for a political party that is ready to dispense with the freebies culture and alcohol sale and put the State on the path of progress and development. In the last election, we showed the way and secured over 40,000 votes in many constituencies. People say Tamil Nadu politics will head towards M.K. Stalin versus Anbumani. But I am not ready to take it seriously as yet.
Though the PMK advocated a pan-Tamil identity and propagated development-oriented politics, you have been facing accusations that you will take refuge in caste politics whenever there is a crisis…
This is a consistent and vicious campaign against the PMK. Long before others could think about prohibition, the PMK launched struggles for total prohibition and our petition in the Supreme Court resulted in an order for closure of liquor shops in national highways. Do you say our effort is motivated by any sectarian politics? We want to replace identity-based politics with development-oriented politics.
There is a growing chorus within the AIADMK to make Ms. Sasikala the Chief Minister. What’s your view?
Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam should be allowed to function without interference of “extra-Constitutional authorities”. He was duly elected by the MLAs of the ruling AIADMK as their Leader in the Assembly. As I said earlier, if Jayalalithaa was really interested in projecting Sasikala as her political successor, she would have given her some position.
