January 1, 2008 Unresolved Issues Dog
Tamil Nadu into 2008 By Papri Sri Raman
Chennai
The year 2008 has begun for Tamil Nadu with a lot of political
baggage that is bound to influence the growth of one of India's
biggest states.
The state is tragedy-prone. The midnight revelry saw a stage set up
on a swimming pool crash at a city hotel, injuring two. As many as
150 people were on that stage, and the danger could have been
greater.
Not only did Tamil Nadu bear the brunt of the tsunami in 2004, it
has also witnessed gruesome incidents of neglect and political
violence such as a school fire at Kumbakonam in which more than 90
children were burnt to death.
At Erawadi, nearly 30 mentally challenged people were charred, and a
bus burning at Dharmapuri saw the lives of three young women snuffed
out.
In November 2006, at least 17 people travelling in a truck carrying
80 were killed in Krishnagiri district as the vehicle collapsed in a
hill area. The year gone by saw several more such accidents.
One at a rail crossing in Kancheepuram district in April killed 13
people.
The new year has begun with an alert from National Security Advisor
M.K. Narayanan that there could be attacks by extremists on leaders
and public places in Tamil Nadu.
According to intelligence reports, threats from the Liberation
Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and Maoist guerrillas have been
growing.
The warning from India's top security adviser came in the wake of
year-end reports that LTTE chief Velupillai Prabhakaran is dead or
dying and Sri Lanka's navy chief saying the guerrillas were starved
of supplies.
"The arms and ammunition they receive at present come only from
Tamil Nadu (in southern India)" the Daily News newspaper of Sri
Lanka quoted Wasantha Karannagoda as saying.
With Colombo likely to go on the offensive against the LTTE by April
this year, Tamil Nadu opposition politicians like J. Jayalalitha too
have expressed fears that the Tamil Tigers are shifting base into
the state.
This means greater security concerns for Tamil Nadu in the year
ahead. Says Jayalalitha: "Only god can save Tamil Nadu now."
Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi ended the last day of 2007 with a
high-level meeting of security agencies that have beefed up cover
for politicians and at crowded places of religious worship.
The year 2007 saw a lot of attacks on leaders of the Congress party
in Tamil Nadu, now riddled with factionalism. This is going to
intensify in 2008, with a clear leader of the state Congress
expected to emerge in two years.
The Dravidian parties face several threats. Bahujan Samaj Party
leader Mayawati gave a year-end call to the Dalits in the state to
unite with the marginalized Brahmins to defeat "caste-based"
Dravidian politics.
At a rally of 20,000 Dec 30 in Chennai, Mayawati said that for the
last 60 years the Dravidian parties had "not done anything to uplift
the weaker section".
The DMK and AIADMK also face competition from the ambitious PMK and
actor Vijayakanth's DMDK. While the DMDK expects to strengthen its
position, the PMK is expected to shift loyalties from the DMK to
AIADMK.
There is also talk that the opposition AIADMK is wooing the Congress
and vice versa, with the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA)
unhappy with the DMK's politics in 2007.
With the aging, post-80, leadership at the helm, the ruling DMK is
likely to see a number of changes.
The fate of Karunanidhi's son and chief-minister-in-waiting M.K.
Stalin is still hanging by a thread that leads deep south to his
brother M.K. Azhagiri. A possible succession battle is expected to
play out this year.
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