Opinion Udhayanidhi’s arrest is TVK’s own goal
His words were condemned across the political spectrum and by large sections of civil society. That should have been the beginning of a conversation on a broader coarsening of political rhetoric. Instead, the story is now one of executive overreach.
That's an own goal by a party and government on which many in Tamil Nadu pinned hopes for change. The remarks made by former Tamil Nadu Deputy Chief Minister and current Leader of Opposition Udhayanidhi Stalin about a female actor are misogynistic. The DMK has said that party supremo Stalin’s son was only criticising the Vijay-led government on the Cauvery water issue, but that explanation cuts little ice — his words carried a double entendre. The immediate weaponisation of the police and law and order machinery by the TVK government against Udhayanidhi is also problematic — he was arrested a day after his remarks, on a formidable array of charges, including criminal conspiracy, promoting enmity between groups, provoking riots. This rush to target a political opponent by a strong-armed state points to the blurring of lines between government and party. It reeks of a familiar politics of vendetta in Tamil Nadu. For a new government still trying to establish that it represents a break from the past, this is a misstep. That Madras High Court ordered Udhayanidhi’s release is welcome. But the episode raises questions.
Actor-turned-politician Vijay rode a popular wave to office on the promise of providing a departure from politics-as-usual under the DMK-AIADMK duopoly that has marked Tamil Nadu for decades, even as he signaled affinity with key figures of the Dravidian movement such as Periyar. The heavy-handed use of state machinery against the Leader of Opposition is reminiscent, however, of dismal episodes featuring his predecessors — the dramatic midnight police swoopdown on M Karunanidhi during Jayalalithaa rule in 2001, for instance. The police has claimed, after the Madras HC order, that it merely wanted to question Udhayanidhi, but the slew of charges in its FIR, filed with alacrity after the ruling party’s complaint, suggests otherwise.
In the interval between Udhayanidhi’s statement and the police action, his words were condemned across the political spectrum and by large sections of civil society. That should have been the beginning of a conversation on a broader coarsening of political rhetoric. Instead, the story is now one of executive overreach, with the DMK accusing the government of using the police to settle political scores. That’s an own goal by a party and government on which many in Tamil Nadu pinned hopes for change.
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