The Role Of A Lifetime

Tamil film superstar Sarath Kumar, too, will fall back on caste-based politics, reports PC VINOJ KUMAR

AS SRI LANKAN TAMIL MP Sivajilingam warmly shook hands with Tamil filmdom’s ‘supre - me star’ Sarath Kumar after their one-on-one meeting at the Taj Coromandel last week, relief was writ large on his face. Sarath assured the visitor that his new party, the Akila Indhiya Samathuva Makkal Katchi (AISMK), would speak up for Eelam Tamils. That a seasoned Eelam campaigner like Sivajilingam was excited about getting Sarath’s support speaks volumes about the film star’s rise in Tamil Nadu politics.

Sarath launched his party last year and proved his mass appeal at the party’s wellattended inaugural political conference in Madurai in February. Observers say Sarath is a man to watch out for in Tamil Nadu’s increasingly fragmented polity. Sarath belongs to the Nadar community, which predominates in southern Tamil Nadu. He is eyeing the Nadar vote-bank, that is spread over 20-odd Lok Sabha seats. Nadars are the single largest community in five of these seats.

The last noteworthy leader from the community was the Congress stalwart, K. Kamaraj, who as chief minister in the 1960s pioneered the concept of free mid-day meal scheme for poor school children. To many Nadars, Sarath is a potential Kamaraj in the making. Politically, the Nadars today are a discontented lot, feeling neglected by the DMK and the AIADMK alike, both of which appointed non-Nadars from Kanyakumari as ministers. In Kanyakumari, Nadars constitute more than 60 percent of the population.

Sarath wants to be seen as being above caste affiliations. He says his party has been formed to serve all Tamils, not any one community. An extensive tour of the state is next on his agenda. “We are drawing our plans to peak at the right time. Our target is the next Assembly election,” he told TEHELKA. Of course, he will soon be working out alliances for the 2009 Lok Sabha polls.

Sarath’s emergence in the political field has reaffirmed the bond between politics and cinema in Tamil Nadu. Four chief ministers, including the incumbent M. Karunanidhi and his predecessor J. Jayalalithaa, have had film industry connections. In the last Assembly election, another actor, Vijaykanth, made his political debut. His party, the Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam, polled about eight percent votes. Vijaykanth is seen by some as a future chief minister. But Sarath believes he can overtake him. “I may have floated my party only last year, but I’ve been in politics for more than a decade,” he says. By contrast, says Sarath, Vijaykanth entered politics just four years ago. “I came into politics long before, in 1996, when without any political allegiance, I campaigned across the state to bring down Jayalalithaa’s ministry. Where was Vijaykanth then?

Sarath, 54, joined the DMK in 1998 and unsuccessfully contested the Lok Sabha election from Tirunelveli that year. Three years later, the DMK made him a Rajya Sabha MP, but he quit the party in 2006, peeved over his supporters being ignored during the allotment of seats for the Assembly polls. He was then in the AIADMK for a while, before he floated the new party.

ONE OF the more interesting strategies of Sarath’s party is its wooing of Nadars from the BJP. The BJP created a base in Kanyakumari by playing Hindu and Christian Nadars against each other. Sarath is now playing the Nadar card to woo both sides. His leaders have begun a campaign alleging that backward castes are sidelined in the right-wing Hindu Munnani (HM) ever since that outfit came under the leadership of Rama Gopalan, a Brahmin. Much emphasis has also been placed on the late Dhanulinga Nadar, an HM founder, and a native of Kanyakumari, forgotten by the state’s upper caste-dominated Sangh Parivar. “Nadars have been reduced to mere foot soldiers of the Sangh Parivar,” says S. Raveenthran Thuraiswamy, Sarath’s political advisor.

The AISMK claims to have eaten significantly into BJP votes in the district. For example, in a ward election in the Killiyoor district, it defeated the BJP candidate. “That victory was made possible because the BJP votes were transferred to us,” he claims. Last year, the AISMK led protests against a project of Tata Titanium in Tuticorin. Recently, it opposed attempts by the public sector company, Indian Rare Earths, to acquire land in Kanyakumari. Both projects were opposed on the grounds that they would displace local Nadars.

The AISMK has also appointed members of other communities as party office bearers to avoid being typecast as a Nadar party. For instance, AN Sunderasan, Sarath’s close aide and president of his fan club since its inception in 1990, is a Vanniyar. Sunderasan, who is the party’s deputy general secretary, swears by Sarath’s political acumen and is confident he will be a successful politician. “He has the ability to create opportunities to succeed in whatever he does,” he says. To illustrate this point, Sunderasan recalls how Sarath entered films. Tired of asking producers for a chance, he produced and acted in his own film in 1988. Later, he got roles as a villain and shot into fame with a stunning performance in a Vijaykanth movie, Pulan Visaranai, in 1990, which got him a ‘best villain’ award. Sarath’s first lead role came in 1991, and there’s been no looking back since. He has acted in more than a hundred films. He is currently the president of the Tamil Actors’ Association, a post that Vijaykanth held until recently.

Married to television personality, Radhika, Sarath has the added advantage that she, too, can draw the masses. The party is planning to use her during campaigning. “As the queen of the small screen, and a familiar face to the people, she will be a great asset to us,” says Thuraiswamy.

Politics runs in Radhika’s family. Her father, MR Radha, a popular actor of yesteryears, was an important member of the Dravidian movement. She has a sentimental attachment to DMK chief M Karunanidhi, whom she calls ‘Appa’ (father). Their relationship remains strong and observers feel it may lead to a AISMK-DMK alliance in future. Radhika’s association with Sun TV has got her husband a fair coverage on that network. Few know that Sarath is a first cousin of media baron Sivanthi Adityan of the Tamil daily Thina Thanthi. All he has to do now is to leverage all these factors and make an impact with the electorate.