Political compulsion works in unlikely ways. It has, for instance, prodded Congress Jananayaga Peravai leader P. Chidambaram to talk of a ‘‘third front’’ in Tamil Nadu to take on the two gargantuan Dravida parties, the AIADMK and DMK. The former minister is, quite clearly, feeling the full weight of his political isolation as a player outside the Dravida fold in a state that has been under the grip of the two major Dravidian parties for the last four decades. His isolation has driven him to work anew for an alliance, some say merger, with his former party, the Congress. The latter—equally clueless about what it should do to wield power in the state—appears to have responded positively. But a move of this kind will have to contend with a troubled past. After all, the historic defeat of the Congress in 1967, in the wake of its brutal handling of the language rioters in 1965, marked a decisive shift in the state’s politics, not just in terms of who got to rule the state but who got to benefit from power. The Congress could not get a handle on how to relate the social aspirations of the increasingly vocal intermediate castes to its political agenda and was punished conclusively in the process. Meanwhile, decades of politics and policies, including caste-based reservations, have served to reinforce the consolidation of groups and communities which have served as electoral bulwarks for the two Dravidian parties. Therefore, while the idea of a third political formation emerging in Tamil Nadu is a seductive one—the more political choices people have the better in a democracy—it will have to be tested against hard reality. The AIADMK would present a strong, long-term challenge for any third force, and even if the DMK appears to lack credible and energetic leaders today, it is by no means a spent force. The one factor that could work in favour of a third force is the perceptible change in social attitudes. As one analyst put it, the Tamil Nadu citizen is no longer just a Tamil but an Indian Tamil, and expanding markets mean that job opportunities for the upwardly mobile young are not just confined to the state. All this would appear to make the captive votebank politics of the state something of an anachronism. All this could present a window of opportunity for those who speak of alternatives.
