Actor and TVK founder C. Joseph Vijay’s anti-corruption plank is nothing new as the film stars floating their own parties in Tamil Nadu have taken up the same theme to cut a name for themselves and to garner a massive vote. After he launched ADMK (later AIADMK) in 1972, M.G. Ramachandran said the DMK leaders had rejected his demand for disclosure of assets by partymen. Asked about Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi’s statement that he had been given time to “express regret”, MGR said he would not express regret as long as he lived. Instead, the DMK leaders should express regret, he added.
When he landed in Coimbatore in November, the police had a tough time as the partymen broke the barricades and stormed the aircraft in which he landed. At a public meeting in Tiruppur, he announced that the ADMK-CPI agitation would “paralyse” the DMK government. When he asked the crowd if they were ready for any sacrifice to remove the corrupt and bureaucratic DMK from power, the crowd responded in the affirmative in one voice.
When Jayalalithaa floated her faction, AIADMK (Jayalalitha), in 1989 after the death of her mentor MGR, she promised in her election manifesto a clean and efficient government. “A new era in Tamil Nadu politics was ushered in when MGR was in the saddle for 11 years. But after he fell seriously ill in 1984, there was chaos and confusion and people around him exploited his physical incapacity. Following his death, the corrupt elements have remained in a faction and the responsibility has fallen on the AIADMK (Jayalalitha) to pursue the crusade of MGR. It will be the party’s commitment to the electorate to establish MGR’s rule, committed to the welfare of the people,” the manifesto said.
