Down the rabbit hole, it’s politicians all over

Reading, talking and thinking too much about politics last week, I reached out to the Lewis Carroll classic. If my idea was to detox, I failed. Curiouser and curiouser it got as Alice’s conversations with the White Rabbit, Cheshire Cat and Mad Hatter brought alive anthropomorphic images of Tamil Nadu politicians. Here are a few of my apparitions.

My dear, here we must run as fast as we can, just to stay in place
It’s not because he has stopped jogging in the mornings that this quote probably reminded me of chief minister M K Stalin. In fact, it’s more because he keeps running, as fast as possible, to remain where he is. His son and deputy chief minister Udhayanidhi Stalin appears to be ready for the relay, but Stalin still has a few more laps to do before passing on the baton. His political rivals like AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswamy and BJP state president K Annamalai keep Stalin on his toes. And just when he seems to be slowing down, help comes from governor R N Ravi whose penchant to drape Thiruvalluvar in saffron and deride Dravidianism spur Stalin on. A minister told me the other day that DMK hopes Ravi stays on in Raj Bhavan till the 2026 assembly election.

Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast

It takes courage to be Edappadi K Palaniswami. I am not sure about the five other things he believes before breakfast, but he is convinced that AIADMK can defeat DMK in the coming assembly elections without aligning with BJP again. And the former chief minister believes that his party would be stronger without O Panneerselvam, V K Sasikala and T T V Dhinakaran who have been sending feelers for a reunion. Whether he would stand his ground if pressure from BJP national leadership builds in the runup to the polls remains anyone’s guess. Courage is just a step away from foolhardiness, but for now EPS means Everyday Party Supremo.

I wonder if I’ve been changed in the night. Let me think. Was I the same when I got up this morning
Seeman! Once a votary of Periyar, the NTK leader now spews venom on the father of the self-respect movement in Tamil Nadu. In a desperate bid to build a narrative of Tamil nationalism as an antithesis to Dravidianism, Seeman has surprised himself with his devotion for Velupillai Prabhakaran on one side and Lord Murugan on the other. Some of his party functionaries believe Seeman is tilting towards the right, but nobody contests that he is the most irascible politician in the state.

Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here? That depends a good deal on where you want to get to
Alice had the Cheshire cat to answer the question. With no such help, actor Vijay, founder of TVK (which turned one on Sunday), should be asking himself that. Having declared DMK as his rival number one, and Seeman having closed his doors to the latest political migrant from tinsel town, Vijay looks askance at AIADMK. Aligning with EPS means a definite numerical advantage in the election, but how would he explain his volte face after promising to be ‘the alternative’? And, if fighting corruption is his avowed goal, how would he campaign for tainted former ministers in the EPS camp? More importantly, would he cede the chief ministerial candidate post to EPS? As the cat told Alice, if you don’t know where you are going, any road can take you there.