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DISCERNABLE DOWNSLIDE

A year in prison under POTA charges, disheartened MDMK cadres and damaging allegations—Vaiko is having his worst time ever, observes India Today's Arun Ram.

"I am a strategist and a fighter. I will emerge stronger if I am arrested." That was Vaiko telling India Today over the phone from Chicago hours before he boarded a flight to Mumbai and later to Chennai, where he was arrested under charges of POTA on July 11 last year. As the MDMK leader completes one year in jail - perhaps the longest for an MP in independent India - his words of courage are far from being translated to reality. In fact, while the firebrand leader continues to languish in jail, charges of corruption and self-aggrandisement have damaged the his image and the cadre's orientation.

The MDMK, formed in 1994 after Vaiko's ouster from the DMK failed to emerge as a popular alternative Dravidian party, but it stuck to the basic Dravidian ideologies with a zest symbolised by the vociferous Vaiko himself. It was the party's strong pro-LTTE stand and its leader's unbridled admiration to Tiger Prabhakaran that stymied the MDMK's growth among people.

Even Vaiko's decision to ally with both the DMK and AIADMK led fronts in different elections did not pay off. However, the party has never been in such dire straits before. Finally, it was Vaiko's love for Tamil Eelam that landed him in trouble. Not one to let go an opportunity to nail down her opponents, AIADMK general secretary J. Jayalalithaa was waiting to pounce on the MDMK leader who bitterly attacked her during the run-up to the 2001 Assembly elections. It was not the first time that Vaiko had tried to glamourise the LTTE, but when he heaped praises on the LTTE's struggle at a public meeting at Thirumangalam near Madurai on June 29, 2002, he was walking into the Jaya trap. POTA, the then fresh anti-terrorist Act supported by the DMK and Vaiko's own party, came in handy for the AIADMK Amma and Vaiko was behind bars.

Those who know Vaiko closely also know his penchant to be a her
to revel in the martyr-like image he was cultivating as the arrest threat loomed large. But little did he know the long-term damage his prolonged imprisonment under the then ill-deciphered POTA could cause to his party. "Going by his wont, Vaiko might still prefer the image of a caged tiger than that of a free revolutionary," says a former colleague of Vaiko, "but little does he realise that the MDMK cadres don't have that fire he carefully kindled."

Or, may be, Vaiko knows it and he is helpless. Confides an MDMK worker: "When he was arrested, nobody really thought that he would be in prison for such a long time. Everyone in the party thought it was going to be a great opportunity to revive the cadres with a sense of aggression. But the uncertainty over his release has left the workers disheartened."
Even as the party plans to observe Vaiko's arrest anniversary with a state-wide protest, there is a palpable coldness among the MDMK cadre. Says an MDMK activist who has never failed to travel long distance to hear his leader mouth those acerbic adjectives: "I still go to the POTA court whenever Thalaivar (leader) is produced there. The very sight of him in captivity enrages me. But I am not sure how long the feeling would last in my other friends in the party."

Vaiko has been in a dilemma. Even while continuing in the NDA, which passed POTA which such determination, he cannot accuse the alliance of not coming to his rescue. With its representatives in the Union Cabinet, the MDMK thought it wise to keep mum. But the second big blow came in the form of the arrest of Union Minister of State for Finance Gingee Ramachandran's personal assistant R. Perumalswamy on charges of accepting Rs 4 lakh from an IRS officer seeking a transfer. Ramachandran was forced to resign, but allegations of favouritism and corruption in the MDMK top brass haunted not just him.

While the media highlighted the obvious Minister-PA relationship, tales of Perumalswamy's proximity to Vaiko were being discussed by insiders. Also known as Babu, Peru place of Vaiko. "There were tales of Vaiko promoting Perumalswamy to be the VIPs' man in Delhi," says an MDMK activist from Sivakasi, "it hurt me and made me think if it was worth working for a party that professes the poor man's emancipation and practises the contrary." A close associate of Vaiko, who frequently meets him in the prison says Vaiko was initially disturbed by the episode.

A former associate of Vaiko says such a plight was waiting to happen to Vaiko. "He is so egoistic that nobody else counted in the party. And that is the reason why you don't find such people as MDMK founder members Madurantakm Arumugham, Pon Muthuramalingam, Vedaranyam Meenakshisundaram and Radhakrishnan have quit the party." That could be an attempt by the disgruntled to poke at the wounded tiger, but T. A. K. Lakshmanan's new book on Vaiko - Disai Mariya Vaiko (The Vaiko Who Strayed) -- alleged misappropriations looks damaging. The former district secretary of MDMK (he was ousted from the party earlier this year) alleges that Vaiko has a daughter out of an illicit relationship with a lady during his college days and that he has betrayed the cause of Dravidianism and amassed wealth.

"While in the DMK, Vaiko held pubic meetings to further his popularity without consulting the leadership. When Karunanidhi hauled him up for this, Vaiko wept at his feet. That was just plain acting," says Lakkumanan, who also accuses Vaiko of ridiculing Karunanidhi during the midnight arrest of 2001. "Vaiko made fun of Kalaignar, saying the latter was putting up an act."

Vaiko prefers not to reply to Lakkumanan in the same coin. "If he is getting some mileage out of it, I will not stand in his way," is all that the MDMK leader has to say about the author. Meanwhile, Lakshmanan did not stop with the book-he met Jayalalithaa on June 23 to present a memorandum requesting a probe into the assets of the MDMK leader.
MDMK leaders do not agree that Vaiko's imprisonment and the allegations have weakened the party. Says MDMK chairman L. Ganesan: "In fact, the
st. We are planning peaceful protests all over the state to take the case to the people's court." However, for the MDMK workers, who were driven more by Vaiko's high-voltage words than sobre strategies, are not very enthusiastic.

Vaiko, having preferred to question some provisions of POTA to applying for bail, spends his time in the Vellore Central Prison, reading books and meeting friends and lawyers. Right now, he is reading The Man, by Irving Wallace. "He is much the fiery same," says MDMK spokesperson Nanmaran, who visited Vaiko on June 7. Vaiko could easily relate to Wallace's words: "To be one's self, and unafraid whether right or wrong, is more admirable than the easy cowardice of surrender to conformity."
However, his cadres - leaderless and low on fuel - are unlikely to read the memorial plaque at Wallace's Grave in Culver City, California: "Life is not a daily dying. Not a pointless end, but a soaring and blinding gift snatched from eternity."

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