TN Politics: Election Results

 

Before I go into TN election results the news that capitulated entire India was victory of Mamta mam; I think this is victory of democracy, victory of determination, victory of women power, victory of hard work etc., BJP phased out Bengal election in eight phases just to give more room for campaigning and to concentrate more on pockets, BJP went with ‘Mission Bengal’ as they badly wanted to capture Bengal from Didi and did whatever they can to push Mamta. They used authoritative force of ruling party, they had all VVIPs do a detail campaigning all over the state, they pulled back experienced ministers from TMC and Mamta who can be termed as Iron lady took everything that was thrown at her and emerged as a victorious leader. God knows what happens in Nandigram and her little speech in the evening once TMC was cruising through just showed she is a leader and one person who can oppose Modi-Shah camp in 2024. With JJ no more, Chandrababu Naidu out of picture it is Didi who is emerging as tough opponents for BJP.

Let me go over TN election results in 20 points:

ü  DMK won as expected and as a single party they crossed 117 mark comfortably which will augur good for the party making them cross the  line with absolute majority. Stalin has done quite a bit of groundwork between election and when results were announced. Four secretaries for CM is definitely a master stroke who can split up the work and come up with productive stuff working along the CM. Out of 34 ministers, 15 ministers are debut. New Ministry for water resources (water resources was part of Public works ministry) is a good move and stalin's rationale behind changing the portfolio names made sense. For example he says 'Ministry for Environment' change to 'Ministry for Environment and Climate' is because climate changes make an effect on environment and similarly 'Ministry for labour welfare' is changed to 'Ministry for labour welfare and skill development' since skill development is the key to produce effective workforce. Overall well etched out plan and looks like Stalin wants to make his CM role as effective as possible since he has waited for a very long time to occupy the chair. 

ü  MK Stalin’s hard work through Grama sabhas, hiring Poll strategist, election manifesto and stupendous Maanadu in Trichy all paved way for the success. 

ü  Clean sweep by DMK in Chennai, Trichy, Perambalur, Ariyalur, Karur and most of Tanjore and Pudhukottai will do a world of good for the central districts and delta region

ü  DMK will be more happier on margin of victories on many constituencies (average winning margin for parties in DMK alliance is 25051 and there were many places where margin were greater than 50k)

ü  Vidulai siruthaigal, Indian National Congress, CPI  all won decent number of seats under the Sun rise symbol and will be excited to get into Assembly hall

ü  AIADMK lost the election but am glad defeat is not as bad as expected and they will emerge as a strong opposition party in the state.

ü  EPS though was accidentally handed over the CM post had surprised most of Tamil Nadu and by his good governance he has earned huge amount of respect from public. I read a headline which says “EPS loses Tamil nadu but wins AIADMK” summarizes the whole picture

ü  AIADMK owns Kongu mandalam with resounding victories in Salem, Coimbatore, Thirupur reiterating the fact western belt belongs to AIADMK

ü  BJP and PMK both won seats under two leaves symbol and will get into assembly hall after a long time

ü   Apart from the loss AIADMK will have to reflect on the margin of loss and losing some of the key constituencies (Ex: Srirangam is JJ’s fort and losing in Srirangam is not a good sign for AIADMK). Sterlite protests, Sathangulam incidents all went against ADMK. 

ü  2021 TN elections just reiterates the fact that when it comes to Tamil Nadu it is always Bi polar nature – DMK and AIADMK are the major parties and anyone wants to show their mettle has to partner with one of these parties; Emergence of third front is like serving chutney in Muniyandi vilas – simply not possible

ü  One of the major highlights in TN Assembly election 2021 was Actor Kamalhaasan’s MNM and I got it wrong as far as his performance. I know he will not sustain but thought he will win and get 6% vote share but not winning in one seat and with negligible vote percentage (2.62%) MNM will soon run out of battery. Note MNM contested in only 180 constituencies. 

ü  TTV Dinakaran’s AMMK was a damp squib and hardly made any noise, he himself lost in Kovilpatty and that will dampen his confidence. Personally am unhappy with his loss since I definitely see a leader in him

ü  Seeman’s Naam Tamizhar Katchi put up a great show and surprised many pundits with its vote share of 6.58%; NTK is also the third biggest party as far as vote percentage though it couldn’t win a single seat. Note it stood all by itself with no alliance with either DMK or AIADMK

ü  Feel very bad for Vijayakanth – he had the guts to face Karunanidhi and JJ and he as the opposition party in 2011 but now party had a crushing defeat and party’s future looks very bleak

ü  Celebrity like Kushboo losing just got to show politics and celluloid are two different arena and people are not ready to endorse just because you are a celebrity

ü  Out of 234 candidates we have just 12 candidates from Thai kulam which is just 5% and that is very poor representation as far as women representatives. 

ü  Education and Finance are two important portfolios and am happy young guns like Mahesh Anbil Poyyamozhi and PTR Palanivel are handed over these posts. I expect great show from these two.

ü  DMK winning in TN, LDF winning in Kerala, TMC winning in Bengal just got to show regional parties hold a upper hand and even giants like BJP cannot make much impact (Punch line: BJP is like pista in North but when it comes to TN they are mere Sundakka)

ü  EPS wishing Stalin on his tenure and Stalin replying back asking for collaborative help is something Tamil nadu had not seen before and nice to see the gestures from both sides. OPS attending the swearing-in ceremony and tea party just shows Tamil Nadu is turning a new leaf as far as ethical behavior .

    I pick topics on food, cinema and religious aspects and Politics was something very new to me. Just like everyone I used to think politics is all crap but little did I know Politics is damn interesting once you try to understand more. During childhood I used to be fond of reading sports column in The Hindu and now sipping my morning coffee and reading through various political articles was a great feeling. Politics brings everything on to the table – Education, Healthcare, Economy, Industrial growth, Tax structures, Agriculture, Infrastructure etc., and local government play a pivotal role on one’s standard of living. If one does not find time to cast his/her vote then I am afraid they have no right to talk about Government and governance. On April 6, I had to go to native to attend a funeral but still made a point to cast my vote by standing in the line very early and Minu who hardly shows interest on Politics made sure she got her Election ID in time after fighting for it for months. She along with both the boys went and casted her vote and we are happy as a couple we did our part and obeyed the constitutional right. 

Next Blog: The Pen is mightier than the sword   

Let me say a kutty story

 Let me write a kutti story ..Pay attention listen to me

If you want take it ..or else venam tension leave it baby …

 Just imagine what I am describing ….There was one person who was caught in a vast thick forest which was inhabited by lions, tigers, elephants etc.,The person became disturbed and frightened and went hither and thither to find out some place of refuge. He did not succeed and while he was running around the forest he fell into the pit and caught himself hanging from a branch of a big tree. As he was hanging from the branch he witnessed following:

1)      Huge elephant catching hold of the tree

2)      Snakes below the person who was all getting ready for him to fall

3)      White and black rats sitting on one corner of the branch which are slowly but surely eating the branch

4)      Honey comb with honey drops falling on top of the person and bees flying around

 Interpretation of Elephant: Elephant catching hold of the tree represent past karma; If you have earned good karma elephant can pull the tree over from the pit and escape you from falling directly into snakes; Instead if you earned bat karma elephant can expedite you falling into the pit and make things miserable. Karma plays a huge role in one’s life and many a times when people face hardships for which they do not have any control the reason can be bad karma inherited from past.

 Interpretation of Snakes: If elephant represent past karma then snakes represent future karma. If you have done good things and inherited good karma then there is a chance these snakes can be non poisonous; In case you have committed many sins then these snakes are all ready to bite you. That is why it is very important to inherit good karma as much as possible not just for the well being of oneself instead well being of the whole family.

 Interpretation of white and black rats: Black and white rats represent day and night respectively and slowly but surely they eat up time and take you closer to death. Whether you are in purple patch or going through a rough phase time always ticks. Days and nights keep rolling by and as they say ‘Time and tide waits for no man’.

 Interpretation of Honey comb: There are so many dangerous signs for the person hanging from the branch instead he relishes the honey drops that are falling which are nothing but the materialistic possession. Human beings always have this love towards materialistic world though they may portray otherwise. 5 series BMW for a male, diamond necklace for a young lady, bike/Ipad for a teenager all brings in so much of happiness. Desire never ends and people keep running and running to buy more and more assets (movable/immovable). Person forgets about everything that is happening around him since he is carried away by the sweet drops, even bees fly around and try to wound the person but still the joy of having honey drops makes the person in intoxicated state.

 Lord Vishnu: Lord Vishnu extends his hand to help the human to give him Moksha and release him from the cycle of rebirth but the person is so engrossed in the dripping Honey that he fails to see the helping hand of Lord Vishnu. In life when God is ready to help us we humans give paramount importance to worldly pleasures which people derive from materialistic world. People pray with full spirit but when they get to experience materialistic world they get carried away.

 Summary: Corona has given us all free tuition on philosophy and help us understand life is very uncertain. It reminded us that no matter how much bank balance you have in the end it will be transferred to some other name, all pathiram/deeds are mere legal A4 sheets of paper; In this Corona period all of us must have lost at least one person in our near and dear circle. When someone leaves this world you are reminded of two things: 

(a)You are reminded of the good time spent together 

(b)Humanitarian based work the person did etc., Basically the good deeds(dharma kariyangal) you do is going to stay in people’s mind. 

Look at Vivek, almost entire Tamil Nadu mourned for his death. More than his movies people remember him for the number of trees he planted. From what I understand embracing with religious activities and earning good karma by associating ourselves in as many charitable causes should be our goals in life. 

Next blog: TN Election results (already have few punchlines ready - BJP is pista in north whereas in TN it is mere sundakka, MNM party can be proud of their feat and deserve some M&M)

Banana Tree

 Vaalai maram is nothing but Plantain tree and is considered to be very auspicious especially in Tamil Nadu. In any function we will see vazhai maram in the front entrance and there is a rationale behind it – plantain tree has a special feature that of producing baby plantain tree from the root and that is why they say 'வாழை அடி வாழை’.It basically means family should be prosperous and produce more offspring. Also within my community there is a tradition when relatives meet for an occasion plantain is cooked signifying unity of the family. Also Banana is one among the two fruits which is considered to be sacred as far as Neiveidhyam since they do not grow after throwing the leftover part. If you eat banana and throw its peel nothing will grow out of it. Our ancestors made Banana as one of the prasadam items which had good nutritional values and medicinal values on top of being sacred. It is also readily available and very affordable for people from all walks of life.

   Let us look into some of the health benefits plantain tree has to offer. The stem (Vazha thandu) is an effective method to combat renal stone problems. The potassium content and the diuretic properties in the stem help to stall the formation of calcium lumps or crystals from the kidney. Banana stem also helps in treating Urinary tract infections due to presence of Vitamin B6. Banana flowers (Vazhai poo) is loaded with fibre, protein, potassium, calcium, copper, phosphorus, iron, magnesium and Vitamin E and the beauty is it is affordable for all. Banana flowers are loaded with antioxidants which battle free radicals, they inhibit growth of pathogenic bacteria thereby keeping infections at bay, and for women they help in increasing progesterone levels in the body thereby preventing excessive menstrual bleeding. Thanks to the person who invented Vazhai poo vadai - he deserves a diamond ring; Banana leaf (Vazhai elai) virundu is always special and no costly plate can come close to a meal served in Vazhai elai. Leaf has got polyphenols which contain natural antioxidant. On top of that it contains Chlorophyll which helps in treating ulcer and skin problems. After its use once you throw it either becomes food for dogs/cows or becomes natural fertilizer for plants.

   Hindu religion always had relation with plants and animals and had a nice bonding with Nature. The plants and animals have direct relation with gods and goddesses and are considered important due to specific qualities. According to Hindu Mythology, Rishi Durvasa had cursed his wife for interrupting his sleep, He cursed her to turn into a banana tree and upon receiving the curse, she pleaded with her husband for a wish that she should be treated special and as a holy plant. Rishi fulfilled her wish and since that day the leaves of banana trees are considered auspicious. Also tree is considered equivalent to 'Devaguru' and planting the tree is equal to having a guru or Brihaspati at home. Tree is devoutly religious which symbolizes Lord Vishnu and worshipping it every thursday one gets benefits of planet Jupiter. 

  Hinduism is always famous for old rituals and practices. Based on Astrology bride or groom may have mangalya dosham. As per birth chart this may bring issues in their respective marriage life and hence the couple may be deemed incompatible. So if the bride has Mangalya dosham then bride is married off to a banana tree in order to break the curse. It is believed that mangalya dosham causes problems only in first marriage. Then the tree is uprooted and destroyed which symbolizes husband of the bride is no more. Upon nullifying the mangalya dosham then the bride is married off to a real groom. 

Next Blog: Let me say a Kutty Story 

C-A-S-T-E

 

‘Pariyerum Perumal’ was the main reason to come up with this blog and missed watching this movie earlier which definitely had an impact on me on ‘Caste’ based issues. I was very particular to watch Director’s second venture KARNAN as soon as it hit theatres which is once again based on caste but this time the protagonist had the guts to face the society versus Pariyerum perumal where the hero just had to succumb to reality. Both the movies are the driving factors for me to express my views on Caste. I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed Karnan as the movie conveyed pain and agony of the oppressed people. Dhanush was brilliant and every time he raised voice in support of oppressed, audience went crazy just because they could relate to the dialogue. One of the dialogues “Kandaiyya mavan Kannabiran aagalam, Madasamy magan Karnana iruku kudatha“ just got reception as much as a Thalaivar intro and my favourite dialogue in Pariyerum Perumal was the climax dialogue “Neenga Neengala irukura varaikum, naan naaya thaan irukanunu neenga edirpaarkura varaikum inga eduvumae maaradhu". These sort of dialogues are slice of life of oppressed people and people tend to think we live in 21^st century and talking about caste is outdated but little do they realize Caste plays a significant role on so many different facets of life in a place like India where we have slum as well as Bandra next to each other. In other words people who reside in Mount Road, Chennai or M.G Road, Bangalore may not know about caste whereas the working class who commute daily to these places from different parts of the city know how caste discriminated them.

 Caste and Politics:

Caste and politics are interlinked and candidates rely on caste based votes. Let us look into one recent example. Current Tamilnadu Government passed a legislation granting Vanniyars 10.5% internal reservation in Education and Employment within the reservation for MBC (Most backward Class) and DNC (Denotified communities). ADMK’s alliance partner PMK (Paataali Makkal Katchi) is a primarily vanniyar based party and their demand has always to see reservation of vanniyars to see the growth and improve overall livelihood of vanniyars. PMK was asking for more seats from ADMK but once they saw this bill been passed they settled with 23 seats. To dig deeper we will have a category of MBC (V) which will include Vanniyar, Vanniya, Vannia Gounder, Padayachi, Palli and AGNIKULA Kshatriya sub-castes that come under the Vanniyakula Kshatriya community and this is the group which will enjoy the 10.5% internal reservation while the other 25 castes under MBC and 68 castes under DNC (overall 93 castes) will be allocated a reservation of seven percent. There is still 22 castes which fall under MBC and will enjoy the remaining 2.5%.  So in summary Mr.Karunanidhi’s move of allocating 20% reservation to 108 communities (MBC & DNC) is further itemized by EPS government. Similarly TTV is eyeing Mukkulathors in Kovilpatty, Mr.Raghupathy relies on nagarathar community in Thirumayam though community is a minority one. In districts such as Ramanathapuram, Thoothukudi, Thirunelveli and Kaniyamumari we have so many minorities (Christians and muslims) who once again determine who rules the state.

 Caste and Education:

Every now and then we see some hot topics being politicized and NEET is one such topic which is being heavily politicized recently in Tamil nadu. On top of MBC and DNC we have seventy six scheduled castes and thirty six scheduled tribes. Now let us look into how the present practice of reservation in Education system. If there are 100 seats then top 31 seats are awarded based on ranking and the remaining 69% of the seats are based on reservation system. Backward class is allotted 30% quota, Most backward caste is allocated 20% quota, Scheduled caste is allocated 18% and scheduled tribe 1% quota. Within the backward class (30% quota), Backward class Non muslims is 26.5% and backward class muslims is other 3.5%; Within scheduled caste (18% quota), Arunthathiyar is allocated dedicated 1%; According to Supreme court order reservation should not exceed 50% but Tamil Nadu is always an exception and state got its 69% reservation based on authentic records and a law passed at legislative assembly. Education is a key element in building a nation and creating bright citizens but when bright is deprived of quality education due to outdated caste system then how can you expect individuals like Sundar Pichai to settle in India?

 Caste and Job:

I am not going to speak about figures instead I am going to pull some examples of how caste and career go interlinked. Before the supermarket culture came, all of us must have seen grocery shops in our neighbourhood in other words Annachi kadai; primarily people from Thirunelveli settled in various parts of Tamil nadu and got into Grocery business. We are into Medical wholesale distribution for over four decades and pretty much all throughout cashier has always been from our Nagarathar community; No prizes for guessing the unwritten rule is if you want to get selected into Tamil nadu cricket team and eventually into National cricket team, One of the leading private bank in India which is performing very well is based out of Kumbakonam based from a particular community, in Tamil nadu when it comes to Bakery business you will find one ‘Iyengar’ bakery in every kilometre and one of the largest drug manufacturers in India is named by its caste. When you approach for a loan though collateral and other formalities are seen in those days caste did play a role on ‘Trust’ factor and once again caste played a role on who gets a loan and how much one gets. Across the border if you take Kammas they are one of the richest castes in entire India and cream of Tollywood belong to this caste. They had vast landholdings in and around Krishna-Guntur area which is blessed with fertile lands thereby making them financially stable. If you take Marathi Brahmins they are into Political circle and similarly caste plays a significant role in shaping careers for many people. 

 Caste and Matrimonial services

 I have taken Hindu paper (Dated April 11,2021) and let me go over few highlighted areas - 

Fair/Mudaliyar seeks groom, Pillai seeks grrom, Velakatala Nair seeks groom, Wanted Tamil Iyer boy, Arunththiyar seeks groom, Gavara-Naidu seeks marriage, Saiva Vellala seek groom, Hindu SC seeks groom; Under Elite Matrimony column: Brahmin looking for a match, Thevar looking for a match, Mudaliyar looking for a match, Arya Vysya looking for a match, Viswakarma looking for a match, Vanniyakula Kshatriyar looking for a match so on and so forth ...Trust me these are wordings from last Hindu edition. 

Looking into all of these I have couple of questions: 

1) If a person from Caste A marries person from Caste B then the kid from both of them belongs to which caste ? How will they determine the eligibility criteria for the kid as far as education or career purposes ?

2) If a particular caste in shrinking and there is gender imbalance within the caste, who is the governing body to make decisions as far as sustenance of the community? 

It is easy to say Caste system has to go and pave way for deserved candidates rather than reservation system but  unfortunately Politics is involved. We need young blood and a dynamic leader to make ground breaking decisions with respect to Caste. 

So what am I upto?

You might wonder I started with two movies based on caste and slowly went over how caste played a role in different aspects of one's living but not sure what exactly I am coming to say. Well I am just expressing my views on caste and believe caste is here to stay for few more generations before it  gets wiped away. India started its IT revolution from mid 90's and there was a golden era when Mr.Chandrababu Naidu in AP, Mr.SM Krishna in Karnataka, Mr.Karunanidhi in Tamil Nadu along with help from past US president Bill Clinton paved way for India's tremendous IT growth. Economic liberalization started in huge proportions and we started to witness standard of living get into new paradigms. Assuming those who got married in mid 90's then those are the people who would have kids ready for marriage now in 2021. Since these kids had good education and got used to sophisticated living and getting exposed to more people we are seeing intercaste marriages starting to happen more now in India.We have three sets of people - Grand parents, People who got into the IT revolution from mid 90's, kids who are teenagers now. Grand parents belong to old school with traditional values whereas the middle generation is a sandwiched generation where they both have old values from the past along with the cosmopolitan culture from their 30's, teenagers are all Hip-Hop tamizhas !! In another couple of decades once we will have all three generations adapt to the new cultural environment that is when we will have lot of people with forward thinking. Until then caste will make its presence felt in some way or the rather. 

 இனிய தமிழ் புத்தாண்டு நல்வாழ்த்துக்கள் to all my readers. 

Next Blog: வாழை

Coversations between 2020 and 2021 !!

 In Singam franchise of movies, Director Hari came up with new Heroines in every movie and had a story (?? ) to tell. Audience just had to assume the storytelling, similarly assume two characters called Mr.2020 and Mr.2021 which I have created exclusive for this blog. Here we go

 Mr.2020: Hi, How are you 2021 ?

 Mr.2021: I am doing kind of okay ..still couldn’t come out of the shock you 2020 had to offer

 

Mr.2020: I gave you lot of rest, lots of family time, much needed break from regular routine but still you complain ?

Mr.2021: When we Work from Home for one day/week that was nice but working from home right throughout the year was a nightmare

Mr.2020: Well just to rephrase the words – when you do household chores one day in a week it makes you feel better but when you share the workload with your better half right throughout the year it makes you feel overwhelming. Am I not right ?

Mr.2021: In a way that’s right but not exactly right

Mr.2020: Stop right there …Don’t talk like Kamal  ..be crisp like Mani Ratnam

 

Mr.2021: You didn’t have any marriages but now look at the mahals which are overflowing with bookings, caterers were sleeping last year and now they don’t get time to sleep, Photographers were taking pictures of themselves and their better halves last year and this year they had to upgrade their hard disk space

Mr.2020: When you have lots of marriages to attend you complain, when you have less events to attend you still end up complaining …don’t you think complaining has been a constant factor irrespective of the situation? We have just started 2021 ..now wait for the house warming, ear piercing, naming and betrothal functions to follow.

 

Mr.2021: You were too relaxing ...had no commitments

Mr.2020: Just because of lockdown things did not come to a standstill – Some of the Businesses still had to run, schools and corporate were forced to open on virtual platforms, Governments had to run quickly and efficiently, Bankers had to work on limited resources, whole Healthcare sector were on their toes and while everyone were inside the doors praying for pandemic to end families of doctors were praying for their own safety

 

Mr.2021: Talking about Healthcare sector, Yes they had huge role to play but why is vaccination taking too long ?

Mr.2020: Nothing will happen overnight, Thank god vaccine is not like fast food where it can be prepared and served immediately. It has to go through a rigorous exercise. Be happy if you have taken one but being vaccinated is by no means you are in safe zone. 

 Mr.2021: I see Corona as a reason for Hospitals to charge exorbitant rates, do you agree ?

Mr.2020: You have two choices - you can keep saying this as a layman or just reflect over what is going on. After Corona running a Hospital is becoming a very challenging task and to provide good medical care there are way too many factors to look into. First and foremost there is shortage on Physicians on some pockets, then supplies such as PPE Kit and Surgical masks has become mandatory not just for doctors but for everyone associated in a Hospital, Cleanliness and Sanitation has taken lots of importance, 24/7 care is need for elderly patients especially if their oxygen level is dripping which again requires manpower, Drug makers are in heavy demand since there is huge demand on Indian drugs in overseas market and with shortage on API (Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient) from China market drug makers are forced to increase price on most of the Indian drugs. All this translates to $$$ and that is why Hospitals charge more these days. Moreover just like how Supply-demand scenario works in Onion price the same principle is applicable here too ....all VIPs and parents whose kids have settled abroad want to get admitted in Hospitals as they feel that is more safe environment than being at home and this in turn creates a demand. 

Mr.2021: Being inside one roof creates lots of arguments with family ?

Mr.2020: This is the time you have to look examples like Actor Vijayakumar and Mr.Karunanidhi; Apart from jokes it is incredible how they ran the family amidst the chaotic atmosphere that may prevail.

 

Mr.2021: Don’t you think Nature were harsh on people?

Mr.2020: Absolutely No, Nature gave so many warnings which we ignored so it took rest by itself – air got purified, no noise pollution, water pollution came down etc.,

 

Mr.2021: What is Corona upto ? I still don’t see light end of the tunnel

Mr.2020: Well you will not unless people are more disciplined. Tamil nadu will not get to see true picture till Elections. Not even one political party complain on the crowds that gather for their respective meetings because everyone does not follow social distancing. Look at Mr.Kamalhaasan who is knowledgeable and knows what he talks but even he does not follow safety precautions.

Mr.2021: Oh No …..again recliner chair, Work From Home, kids atrocities, wife as neelambari ??

Mr.2020: Yes sir …..back to Britannia biscuits, loading washing machine with clothes, refilling the ever ending cereals box, Prime-Hotstar movie watching etc.,

 

Mr.2021: I have learned some new things in the recent past, can you guess ?

Mr.2020: By now you know how to operate washing machines, you know where is mixie repair shop, you know to live without cinema theatres and finally got to know phone number of your own spouse/family member.

 

Mr.2022: Enna pa anga Sound ……My calendar is already getting booked from January to May 2022 from previous years spillover …..

Next Blog: C-A-S-T-E 

TN Politics - Big Players !!

 Let us look into some of the big players who are part of this coming Election. 

Vanathi Srinivasan Vs. Kamal haasan @ Coimbatore South

This is definitely a high profile contest since BJP bargained hard for this seat with ADMK and Mr.S.P Velumani who is the current MLA from Thondamuthur has done a decent job strengthening ADMK's position in Coimbatore region. All this makes Advocate cum Politician Vanathi Srinivasan mam a good contender. Mam attended one of our Rotary meetings and was super impressed with the way she handled QA session from public. Audience just grilled her with questions (mostly against BJP) which was even embarrassment for the hosts but the way she handled the questions I realized she will make it big one day. Kamal will his celebrity status, support from youth and literate society should win and that will earn him a debut seat in TN Assembly. The next few weeks are going to be a dream run for Kamal fans since he will make all his fans proud and known for different getups he may even sport Lee jeans and Under Armour T shirt for assembly sessions. 

Udayanidhi Stalin Vs. PMK's A.V.A Kassali @ Chepauk 

Since Udayanidhi is making his debut in Politics DMK wants to play as safe as possible by giving him a constituency which DMK can never lose and that is none other than Chepauk ....Answer is already out and he will be the winner. 

BJP's Khushbu Sundar vs DMK's Ezhilan @ Thousand Lights

Thousand Lights is basically a DMK bastion and MK Stalin scored hat trick here with three consecutive victories. Thousand lights is one area where we have people from all walks of life - upper, middle and lower class of people. This time both the contestants are new and contest is between a medical practitioner and a celebrity. Ezhilan is famous in the area due to his medical practice and Khushhu being given a chance to contest for first time (congress and DMK did not give her chance to contest) is definitely making her presence felt through aggressive campaigning. It could be a good contest but guess Ezhilan will win. 

ADMK's Kadambur Raju vs AMMK's TTV Dinakaran @ Kovilpatty

Minister Kadambur Raju has already won twice here and TTV Dinakaran contesting here makes this a good contest - basically TTV is eyeing for Mukkulathors, a community he belongs to. 

DMDK's Premelatha Vijayakanth vs PMK's Karthikeyan @ Vridachalam

DMDK and PMK are arch rivals and they both fight with respective Dravidian parties for seats. This time PMK has the upper hand since they had one great news go in their favor - TN government passed a bill to provide internal reservation of 10.5 % reservation to vanniyars few minutes before Election commission announced election date. PMK vote bank consists of Vanniyars and will play to their advantage. Premelatha wanted to contest from a place where Vijayakant won in 2011 and it will be interesting contest in Vridachalam. 

DMK's Mahesh Anbil Poyyamozhi vs ADMK's Kumar @ Thiruverambur 

Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi is showing lot of promise and coming from IT background and being a youngster who is really hands on with his approach is winning lots of appreciation from locals; Kumar on the other hand has been working very closely in the Thiruverambur area, having won 2009 and 2014 elections and skipping 2019 elections sends a message to DMK how badly ADMK wants to capture this place by making Kumar contest against Mahesh. This area is basically the industry belt of Trichy which has got over 1000 registered MSME units where nearly 70% of the units are no more functioning. A good politician can tap the huge potential place has to offer. 

Buddy's Predictions:

*DMK has the upper hand 

*ADMK's alliance with BJP is making them less favorable (ADMK's governance overall has been pretty good )

*Since the election is a closely contested one, Postal votes will play a role on the final outcome. 

*Kamal's MNM will bag huge percentage of votes and will emerge as third biggest party in the state - next few weeks belongs to Kamal fans; As I said before torch will shine but how long is the question before battery is drained

*PMK will increase their vote percentage in the state

*NOTA may get more votes than many political parties which explains people's state of mind in this Corona period. 

My last and final post on TN Politics will be after the results are out in early May. 

Next Blog: Candid conversations between 2020 & 2021 

TN Politics - BJP vs Congress & Constituencies at a glance

 BJP vs Congress

BJP vs Congress is becoming more like comparing Virat Kohli to a district level cricket player. While BJP is gaining more ground and kind of saffronizing whole India Congress is losing teeth to even compete. Mr.Modi is not just a politician but a true leader since there has never been an instance in the past where a Prime Minister from India has got this much global recognition. One good thing with BJP is that they concentrate on building the party and on its bench strength - with demise of Vajpai, Sushma Swaraj, Jaitley, Manohar Parrikar in quick succession party did not go low instead they came up with emerging leaders in the form of Nirmala Sitaraman, Piyush Goyal, Smriti Irani, Anurag Thakur. Modi-Shah partnership is grooming many youngsters and they test waters with young guns and they always look out for results. Now coming to Congress party which is a much older party is literally in ICU state where they neither have senior leaders to lead from the front nor young guns to carry the party forward. Party not just lacks leadership but also direction and intent which are the reasons for the massive setbacks in 2014 and 2019 elections. Congress really didn't prove to be electorally appealing mainly because of its ambiguous and inconsistent formulation to the lowest rungs of the society. Just like how a dummy villain brings down the overall standard of a movie, a weak opposition party cannot play a pivotal role in a democracy. For a vibrant democracy we need a strong and effective opposition. Tamilnadu is one state which is tough nut to crack for both BJP and Congress - unless these parties tie up with Dravidian parties they cannot make any impact.

Let us look into some of the key constituencies in Tamil Nadu

Chennai

Chennai has been DMK's citadel and DMK has contributed much towards Chennai's growth especially during Maran times. Slowly ADMK is capturing Chennai but this time Kamal ji is going to split DMK and ADMK votes. I will not be surprised if MNM wins 1 or 2 constituencies in Chennai and vote percentage of DMK and ADMK will come down due to MNM.  Udayanidhi stalin contesting in Chepauk is a big decision and will be interesting to see how he fares up to the big ticket. 

Coimbatore

With Corona outbreak one thing that political parties have understood is concept of decentralization. Rather than relying everything on Chennai, people have started to look into tier 2 and tier 3 cities. Coimbatore is rightly called as Manchester of south India. City is heavily influenced by Information technology, Industrial growth in engineering and textile sectors. With Saravanampatty emerging as the new IT hub city is going from strength to strength. Coimbatore has been ADMK's fort and once again Kamal's MNM will split votes between DMK and ADMK. After Chennai there is plenty of youth crowd who will support Kamal in Coimbatore and he himself is contesting in the area is a good decision. 

Salem

If at all there is one place in Tamil Nadu that has shown significant growth in the recent past then that has to be Salem and all thanks to EPS. Being part of the defence corridor, promotion of IT emabled services, proposed Chennai-salem highway, Aerospace park in Salem-Namakkal corridor and inaugration of Livestock research centre Salem has undoubtedly going to go to ADMK. 

Madurai

Madurai has also been ADMK's fort and 2011 and 2016 elections just shows that party has Madurai as its stronghold. AIIMS project not being started yet is a concern for Madurai residents especially since it has been two years since the foundation stone has been laid. But with Madurai-Tuticorin and Madurai-Coimbatore Industrial corridors, city will attract major business houses. ADMK should pretty much get hold of Madurai

Trichy 

Trichy has always been DMK's citadel and party always chooses Trichy to kick off proceedings before State elections. Mahesh Anbil Poyyamozhi is slowly but surely becoming a strong force in Tiruverambur area and he is one of DMK's promising candidates. City badly needs a good leader to take advantage of its geographical location. Sipcot Industrial park at Manapparai and renovation of Airport are some of the very few things that happened in Trichy. Last election DMK and ADMK almost got equal seats and with Thirunavakarusu as Trichy's MP who represent Congress it would be ideal if DMK can take over Trichy by that way they have members to represent both at State and Centre. 

Last week I said things are inclining towards with ADMK but with DMK's election manifesto which has over 500 promises they definitely did make a positive influence amongst voters. People are like even if 25% of the listed promises are made then that comes out to over 100 of them. Promises like 12 months of maternity leave, free government bus passes to women, one time financial assistance of 4000 INR to all ration card holders, reduction in fuel prices, LPG price, Aavin milk price all reached masses and suddenly all surveys are predicting DMK's victory.  

Next Blog: TN Politics - Big players !!

TN Politics - Parties at a glance !!

I would like to come up with series of four blogs on TN politics and in the first part would like to go over the Parties in General. I would like to go over the parties with SWOT analysis by that way we get a clear picture on some of the major parties. This election is the first one where stalwarts like Karunanidhi ayya and Jayalalitha mam are not present; They both had huge amount of experience and definitely had an impact at National level and some of Karunanidhi ayya’s moves in the past has fetched rich dividends for the state. While TN is cribbing about Jaya’s loss she was one iron lady who had to muster courage and kind of single handedly worked for the welfare of the state. 

DMK

For DMK, this is Do or die situation and with ten years out of power party is desperately looking to

reverse tables and the recently concluded Manadu in Trichy spanning across close to 300 acres,

parking for 400 acres and chairs being brought from Andra just endorses how badly they are

in need of victory.

Strength – Major political party in TN which has uncanny habit of extracting funds from centre, DMK won 23 seats in 2019 Lok Sabha Election, Support from minority communities

Weakness: Lack of leadership, lack of bench strength, DMK’s allies are not strong enough (Manithaneya Makkal Katchi, Indian Union Muslim League)

Opportunities: People of TN has this habit of shuffling between DMK and AIADMK and this may work towards DMK’s advantage as people may look out for change, MK Stalin comes with huge experience and is preferred candidate for CM post

Threats: Internal conflict within the party, party’s inability to contest all by itself in 234 constituencies, emergence of smaller parties 

AIADMK

I should say AIADMK has done fairly a decent job with good governance and is pretty much on the driver’s seat. The way party handled pandemic during March – June 2020 were incredible and definitely earned lot of respect from public. Chief Minister seems to be approachable and has definitely made lot of progress in upliftment of the state. 

Strength: There is no serious opposition for AIADMK is the ugly truth, Handling of pandemic, strong backing from BJP

Weakness: Being a puppet under BJP may work against the party in the long run, not having enough seats in the Lok sabha level hurts AIADMK

Opportunities: There is positive buzz on CM and if he can translate this buzz into the next five years then EPS will be a big force to reckon in Tamil nadu political circle 

Threats: TTV is definitely a threat to AIADMK and according to me he has good political acumen; Sasikala is out of the equation but she can create some noise at any time

MNM

With Karunanidhi ayya and Jayalalitha mam out of the race and Rajini opting out of politics and

with Vijayakanth not doing well in terms of health there cannot be a better time for Kamal ji to make

inroads in this election. I am super confident that MNM will bag good percentage of votes and may

even emerge as third biggest party in the state. 

Strength – Youth crowd and Thai kulam (women fraternity) support Kamalhaasan and Kamal may even end up winning in places like South Chennai, Coimbatore; Guy is smart and there is no doubt on it; People who badly want a change will opt for Kamalhaasan. Some of his interviews off late is like watching vintage Maniratnam classics and he is sure to get support from literate society.

Weakness: When a heroine is introduced into filmdom she does a heroine centric role and bags all awards with her performance but then she loses focuses after teaming up with commercial directors saying her role demanded skin show. I think this is going to be with the case for Kamal, he is going to make all people make a note of his party in this election and then join hands with parties in the name of allies and then his vision gets diluted. One other weakness for Kamal is people are curious to know who funds for his party operations? People also are skeptical if he cannot adjust with a lady under the institution of marriage how will he manage a state ?

Opportunities: Kamal has a vision and being street smart he may adopt institutional approach in politics and may inject fresh lease of life; 

Threats: As a small party it takes quite some time to climb up the ladder and his candidates can change minds and join opposition parties since power dictates where a candidate wants to join. 

Short Snippets from other parties:

*Personally I like TTV Dinakaran and if he is in the right place he can go places but as of now his party AMMK will not have much impact. Just like the way he handles media

*Sarathkumar’s All India Samathuva Makkal Katchi will make its presence felt in the state as they are teaming with Kamal’s MNM

*Pattaali Makkal Katchi is teaming with AIADMK and they made a smart move of requesting Vanniyar quota precondition

before the polls and now that AIADMK approved their request we may see PMK make its presence

felt as they would bag caste based votes

*Vijayakanth’s DMDK arch rival is PMK and since they have secured 23 seats it was asking atleast 23 seats to AIADMK and since AIADMK rejected the offer DMDK came out of the alliance and may most probably team up with Kamal's MNM

*Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi, Puthiya Tamilagam, Tamil Maanila congress all may have very minor role to play on the final output

*Seeman’s party is Naam Tamilar Katchi was constantly in the news criticizing Rajinikanth on his moves and now that Rajinikanth has

backed out Seeman and his party are no longer in the news. Classic example of negative publicity can

take you only certain distance and beyond that you have to prove your mettle.

*Vaiko’s MDMK is sure to give meme creators lot of work

As of today pendulum is sliding towards AIADMK

Next blog: BJP vs Congress, Elections & Constituencies 

Request to NRI

  Though this blog may be applicable to anyone reading my intent is to reach out to NRIs. For a NRI, request for donation back home may come from parents, siblings, Inlaws, friends, neighbours etc., and nature of the financial assistance may be for various reasons like Religious, Education, Marriage, Health, Environmental and Humanitarian basis (Need of clothes, construction of kitchen or rest room, old age home maintenance etc.,).End of the day it is hard earned money and NRI has the right to choose where he/she wants their funds to be directed. This is on top of the charity a NRI has to do locally on where they live. Since I have been on both the side of the spectrum I want to throw some light on areas where there is help needed in India which unfortunately doesn’t get the attention it deserves.

  I am not going to elaborate more on Religious and Education donations since these two are areas where people are well aware of the need and donors are equipped with more information. If you take temples for example, we have beautiful architecture with so much workmanship and in order to preserve culture and heritage we need to preserve our temples which demands so much of labor which in turn translates to funds. Also Education is one area people feel it will wipe away poverty of coming generations hence donate generously for Education purposes. These are areas where there is awareness in place.

 I would like to talk on two areas where there is help needed but unfortunately many times these are overlooked.

[1] Donations on Health: Health is wealth was merely a proverb in pre corona era but Corona has rewritten the rules and now Health is much more than wealth. 
If you take for Men some of the common Health issues and their costs are as follows (These are all ball park estimates and differs case to case based on age, comorbidities, gender, genes, Nature of the hospital, experience level of consultants, referrals, discounts, insurance coverage etc.,)

   (a) Heart issues: Open heart surgeries may be around 1.5 to 3 lakhs, In general heart surgeries may be around 1 to 2 lakhs
   (b) Kidney issues: Dialysis is around 2000, related surgery is around 15000, Kidney transplant is around 6 lakhs, Removing stone is anywhere between 60000 to 75000; Gall bladder stone surgeries are bit more and it costs around 1.5 to 2 lakhs
   (c) Cancer issues: Based on which stage patient goes as there are many packages based on case to case - it can start anywhere from 2 lakhs to 4/6/8 lakhs 
   (d) Stroke related ailments: It comes around 1 to 2 lakhs
   (e) Cataract surgeries: Anywhere between 20000 to 50000
   (f) Varicose related ailments: Surgery comes around 50000 to 80000

Common Health issues for women and its costs are as follows 

(a)    Breast Cancer: Based on which stage patient goes as there are many packages based on case to case - it can start anywhere from 2 lakhs to 4/6 lakhs
(b)    Thyroid: Mostly medication and consultation but if surgery is required then costs comes around 1 to 1.5 lakhs
(c)   Uterus removal: Beyond 45 years many may need this and costs comes around 60000 to 1 lakh
(d) Joint replacement: Ladies undergo this issue due to wear and tear of bones and it roughly costs 1.5 lakhs per leg and we are talking about 3 lakhs for 2 legs

Accidental injuries are common and based on the severity costs differs from case to case. 

 Now let us know about which group a particular beneficiary may belong to – Group A which comprises 25% of the population may go to Apollo Hospitals for treatment and if someone can afford to go to Apollo Hospitals then they may not need Health assistance from abroad so we can rule out this category. Group C which comprises of other 25% may visit Government hospitals for treatment and these days Government hospitals are much more equipped but still people always have second thoughts on their efficiency. People who get treated here fall under particular section and cost of treatment is zero (utilizing government schemes) with negligible expense for Blood work, lab results etc., so may not need assistance and we can rule out this category too. Group B which comprise of 50% are the ones who can neither go to Apollo nor visit Government Hospitals and they are the ones who approach NRIs for Assistance and this group forms major chunk of the people. 

 Now just for discussion let us take a person who has undergone a major Heart attack where Surgery has be done right away as per recommendation. Based on hospital, age, severity and other complications bill may come anywhere between 75000 to 2.5 lakhs (Discounts and Health insurance are not brought into the equation to make things simple). Let us take the average value which is around 1.25 lakhs; This person maybe salaried and may earn around 30K/month and with single breadwinner of the family this amount is a huge one considering the fact he is taking care of his kids education which extracts good part of your income. At this juncture the guy reaches out to NRI from his network circle. A guy who is a teenager gets funding for education but just imagine the person who underwent a surgery – His income is not much, does not have any backup from his parents/in laws, age is catching up and unexpected expense like these may eat up his savings which he had allocated for kids education and marriage. Banks may even give loan to a teenager citing education purpose (obviously may charge more interest if no collateral is provided) but a person who is in their mid 50’s banks do not even consider giving you loan. I would say person in their mid fifties badly need help. Kindly do not misunderstand that I am against educational assistance, in fact if you want to fix the root cause so that such instances does not happen in future then we got to help people who need educational assistance but the guy who is in his fifties does not have education for no fault of his since his parents stopped education for funding purpose. It is rude to ignore or question him and if he is hale and healthy then he can fulfil family commitments all by himself in whatever capacity. Health insurance is more prominent in corporate and people who can afford but many end up not having one. Personally I have seen many folks postponing surgeries citing cost reasons and stick with medication. 

 [2] Donation for Environmental purpose: Instances like Biden on his very first day at office as President signing back into Paris agreement, Narendra Modi during Climate Adaptation Summit 2021 stressing the importance of living in harmony with nature just reiterates how the World leaders see climate change and global warming. Infosys founder Narayana Murthy wrote a lovely letter to his Daughter and in the last paragraph he has mentioned "As you pursue your goals and live a contended life, remember that there is only one planet for us to live in and that planet is now becoming endangered. Remember that it is your responsibility to pass on this planet to Krishnaa in a better condition than you got it from us."  This pretty much summarizes the current scenario ....

My personal feeling is Corona is just revenge from nature towards mankind for being greedy. Flora and Fauna should coexist but in the name of Economic Liberalization we are just destroying everything and then we cry hell broke loose. Just look around and notice number of earthquakes happening around the world, soil erosion is happening as more and more number of trees are destroyed, we are losing forestland very quickly and if we lose forests then we lose wild habitats too, sea is contaminated by dumping all waste and fisheries are running a huge risk of being exploited, bird species is coming down drastically due to 4G/5G network antennas, water bodies like lakes, ponds and rivers are not maintained and groundwater level goes way too low etc., Environmental consequences of reduction in green cover has been wide ranging right from increase in air pollution, ground water depletion, frequent flooding and overall rise in temperature. Places like Chennai, Bangalore are becoming concrete jungles and according to Asthma allergy resource centre more young kids are showing asthmatic symptoms than ever before. I would like to consider Environmental projects like taking singles in a cricket match, it may not be fancy like hitting fours and sixers but taking singles and rotating strikes play a crucial role in final output of the match. Similarly environmental projects like planting trees, preserving natural water bodies like lakes, rain water conservation, Tapping energy efficient projects like Solar installation all are very important. So when a NRI is approached for these projects it may not appear as attractive or in other words as significant like other streams (You may tend to think paying semester fees is much more important than planting a tree whose benefit is realized only after 20 years). If everyone tend to think the same way we all may have jobs but may not have an environment to live for future generation. So not just back home in India even in the place they reside a NRI has to look into Environmental projects much more seriously and our mantra should be to live in harmony with nature.

   I have just highlighted these two areas to provide more awareness and if this is going to make you reflect more then I will consider my purpose of coming up with this blog is served. Once again I am not against donations on particular streams, it is your hard earned money and you have every right to direct where you want. As we strive to parent our kids by giving them good education we as a society and community should also come together to create a better environment in whatever capacity we can.