It's never dull in Indian politics

Photos: Star File

The world's largest democracy is at work again. Four Indian states (and a territory) held elections this past week. And believe me when I say this is no small affair.

West Bengal for example has a population of more than 90 million and Tamil Nadu's is estimated at 70 million. Mind you, neither is among India's three most populous states (Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Bihar).

While the federal government is led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his right wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and assorted allies, the states that just voted were not among the traditional base of the BJP.

Well, the results are in and they make for interesting reading. After all, it's not every democracy that has communists and movie stars featuring heavily on the political scene.

In Tamil Nadu once again, power lies in the hands of those with roots in the movie industry. This is no real surprise given that the dominant figures since the death of former Chief Minister and screen legend M.G. Ramachandran are his former leading lady Jayalalithaa and his main scriptwriter M. Karunanidhi. In fact, between the three of them, the movie industry has basically provided Tamil Nadu with its Chief Ministers since 1969.

MIC treasurer-general S. Vell Paari is among the many Malaysian Indians who takes a keen interest in Tamil Nadu politics and he was impressed by Jayalalithaa's march to victory.

“In this election, we can see that the small parties were not popular. Vijaykanth, who also has popularity as an actor, did poorly. So did Anbumani Ramadoss. Even Jayalalithaa's party AIADMK was able to win a majority on its own and didn't rely on a coalition. She did it to prove a point and she succeeded.

She also bucked the trend of Tamil Nadu switching back and forth between the two Chief Ministers and the two parties at every election.”

Vell Paari also cited infighting within Karunanidhi's DMK as a possible reason for Jayalalithaa's victory. “Before the election, everyone said she was gone, but the internal battles within DMK also didn't help.”

“Whatever has been said about her, Tamil Nadu has progressed a lot and the people still keep faith in her.”

I, for one, (as a half Tamil) have always been disappointed in this disconnect with reality. Why do Tamils put so much faith in the stars of the silver screen? Sometimes, it's tempting to make sweeping judgements. Recently in Malaysia's Sarawak elections some voters faced online abuse, with many questioning the intellect of the electorate.

Yet, there is no doubt that we do make judgements. For example, if an American says he supports Donald Trump, do we not assume he is racist and ignorant compared to a supporter of Bernie Sanders?

Well by the same token, I have wondered why so many fall for the Jayalalithaa/Karunanidhi circus. I mean the latter is 92 now and trying to pass on his power to his sons. Vell Paari says: “Over the years, new people have tried but it is not that easy to change the mindset and culture.

That being said, honestly, Tamil Nadu has progressed a lot in recent times under Jayalalithaa.”

Just across the other side of South India, the Kerala elections (and as a half Malayalee, I'm interested here, too) brought the Communist Party India (Marxist) back into power. While the rest of the world moved on after the Cold War, Communist parties have been a presence in Kerala since 1957 when E.M.S. Namboothiripad led the party to its triumph as the world's first democratically-elected Communist government.

Since then, he and other intellectual leaders such as C. Achutha Menon laid the groundwork for a worker-friendly regime. In fact, at one point in the 1970s the Communist party split into two and led both the government and the opposition.

Of late, however the communists have been alternating with Congress, and the latest generation has just managed to topple popular Congress leader Oommen Chandy. When I say latest generation I mean that former Chief Minister Comrade vs Achuthanandan, 93, has just given way to his long time rival, Pinarayi Vijayan, who is a sprightly 72.

Aside from anything else, I am also glad that the supreme irritant of a cricketer S. Sreesanth failed in his bid to enter the state assembly.

One other state that has seen a strong Communist presence over the years is West Bengal. In fact, the party had an unbroken rule there from 1977 to 2011. But they suffered another bashing at the hands of Mamata Banerjee, who is fast becoming a strongwoman to rival Jayalalithaa.

Also, the BJP itself managed to create history by winning in the relatively remote North Eastern state of Assam which borders China.

One thing's for sure, it's never dull in Indian politics!

Source:ANN.