Goes on a monologue on how he wants to be a ‘kingmaker’ rather than king.
New Delhi: Once again Rajinikanth has flunked. The Tamil superstar, who has been threatening to launch a political party for quite some time now, called a press conference on Thursday where he did not take any questions, but went on a 30-minute monologue on how he wants to be a “kingmaker” rather than king. To this end, he advocated three political ideas, wanted to “see a wave of resurgence” and an acceptance for them from the people before taking the final plunge. In Rajini’s political book, party leadership and the government are two different entities.
The party council (not clear what he means by that), comprising talented youngsters, will be headed by him. He would then appoint a capable and young Chief Minister and ministers, and scrap thousands of party posts to prevent any interference in clean governance. “This is the best time to enter politics and push for change. We need to create an uprising, revolution, a wave that will sweep away the power of money, men and party structure. I believe that it is possible in Tamil Nadu,” the actor said. He then asked members of his Makkal Manrams (Fans Associations) to take this message to all corners of Tamil Nadu. “I want to see that uprising among the people. This should spread throughout India—party and government should be separate,” he said. Though it is not clear what he means by miracles and revolutions, Rajini emphasised on those words.
“I believe that a change is possible. Tamil Nadu is known for revolutions. Gandhi decided to wear only a loin cloth in Tamil Nadu (sic). Vivekananda said his famous lines ‘Give me 100 youngsters. I will change the world.’ It was here in Tamil Nadu that a regional party dislodged the Congress in the 1960s. People should make it happen again in the 2021 Assembly polls. The people will make a miracle happen,” he said.
While political circles were abuzz with speculation about the superstar’s “political stage fright”, fans eagerly waiting for a formal announcement were clearly disappointed. They did not get an answer as to if and when Rajinikanth will launch his political party. He may be the unvanquished hero on the silver screen taking on thousands of evil men singlehandedly, but when it comes to politics, obviously he is unsure of his steps. He is still wobbling like a baby learning the first steps. Come to think of it, he has been talking about a political party for the past three years. Long back in the 1990s when Jayalalithaa became the Chief Minister for the first time, Rajinikanth, by saying that a disaster awaits Tamil Nadu, had made his first sort of political statement of intent. Subsequently, he had been making statements in favour of one political party or other.
However, he was clever enough not to align with anyone openly, though of late he has been on the same page with the BJP on many contentious issues. Yet again he was keeping a distance, occasionally objecting to his name being “usurped” by the Hindutva party. Of late, he has been talking of launching a political party and had made his intentions clear to fight the coming Assembly polls. Now, he is talking about going to the people (actually fans) once again seeking their endorsement. Going by Thursday’s “press conference”, something is definitely holding back the Tamil superstar. Is he jittery about taking that first step?
Considering his fan following, Rajini should not be hesitating. Those who are in favour of him floating a political party point out that his fan associations have presence in all the 68,000 polling booths in the state. Even by a vague count, his hardcore fans should easily be more than a crore. That is not bad in a five crore voting population. Both DMK and AIADMK have come to power by gaining less than two crore votes.
Perhaps, what is worrying him is the fact that no political party has emerged to challenge the two Dravidian parties in the past 50 years. More than 72% votes are cast in favour of these two. But, logically there is still place for a third player.
In 2009 and 14 general elections, non-Dravidian parties have polled over 20% votes. Before Rajini, another star Vijayakanth’s (Kanth was consciously added to counter Rajini at the cinemas) DMDK had taken off on a promising note. Kamal Haasan’s Makkal Needhi Maiam, set up without much preparation or structural set up, had polled less than 5% votes in the last Lok Sabha elections.
Vijayakanth may have faded away, but Kamal Haasan is very much there. There is a no-Dravidian area to work on. Rajini and Haasan seem to agree on many things. At least both of them believe in clean, ethical politics. Both of them want to give the young and honest people a chance in politics.
Rajini has made it clear that 50-60% of candidates would be from the age group of 30 to 50. If he is not sure of launching a party on his own, Rajini should think of joining Haasan’s platform to begin with. No one need to tell Rajini that one cannot test the waters unless one takes the plunge.
Or, if he is keeping the suspense Tamil filmy style to the end, then only Rajini can promise a blockbuster. A promise is not an assurance.